Sterilised bees wax

[Mr C]

Just more obfuscation.
The facts......It is virtually impossible for AFB contaminated beeswax to infect young larvae with sufficient AFB spores.
If I recall the biology correctly you need at least 10-15 spores per larvae ingested within the first 24 hours of larval growth. This is because AFB is a faculitve anaerobic bacterium and the ideal conditions for the spores to germinate and the bacterium to multiply are only present in the larval gut during this period. At 48 hours old they require millions of spores, thought to be due to antibiotic nature of the brood food now present in the larval gut.

However, Bees wax can be a source of viable AFB spores. "A PCR method of detecting American Foulbrood (Paenibacillus 2 larvae) in winter beehive wax debris" https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00520663/document These guys where able to culture AFB bacterium from AFB spores found in beeswax.
But the likelihood of sufficient spores ever being removed from any contaminated beeswax and then provided as food to the larvae is about the same odds as any of us living to 200 years old........

Thank you for posting this article and everyone else hoo has posted given us a broader understanding

 

[Karol]

Just more obfuscation.
The facts......It is virtually impossible for AFB contaminated beeswax to infect young larvae with sufficient AFB spores.
If I recall the biology correctly you need at least 10-15 spores per larvae ingested within the first 24 hours of larval growth. This is because AFB is a faculitve anaerobic bacterium and the ideal conditions for the spores to germinate and the bacterium to multiply are only present in the larval gut during this period. At 48 hours old they require millions of spores, thought to be due to antibiotic nature of the brood food now present in the larval gut.

However, Bees wax can be a source of viable AFB spores. "A PCR method of detecting American Foulbrood (Paenibacillus 2 larvae) in winter beehive wax debris" https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00520663/document These guys where able to culture AFB bacterium from AFB spores found in beeswax.
But the likelihood of sufficient spores ever being removed from any contaminated beeswax and then provided as food to the larvae is about the same odds as any of us living to 200 years old........

That pinnacle must be really painful.

 

[Karol]

Is this clean thinking or you have some facts behind it?

Not directly with regards to honeybees but have done pathogenic (challenge) recovery studies on sterilized beeswax used in pharmaceutical products. As I said, the likelihood of bacterial spores from beeswax being a problem is low compared to the risk of honeybees picking up pathogens from their natural environment, e.g. unsanitary water.

As with all things microbiological, risk is probability based, i.e. it depends on the level of contamination of the beeswax in the first place. The only true way of reducing the risk to acceptable levels is to source beeswax from reputable, disease free sources. Only if you can't guarantee the source would you really need to consider sterilizing the beeswax but anything less than 160°C for two hours will not achieve that.

 

[Beefriendly]

That pinnacle must be really painful.

 

[Finman]

.
Finally we have to alternative truth about AFB stransmitting.
It transmits via foundations and it does not.


However, there are in many countries a healing system of AFB, that colony is moved to foundations. The bees are saved and get ridd of disease.

The results have been measured numerous times that is succeeds.

And then you have had an apiary 30 years, and you do not have AFB. And you use foundations every year.
How have you avoided the disease?