Terramycin to Treat Bacterial Honey Bee Diseases

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Diseases of honey bees are caused by various agents including bacteria and viruses. Some other diseases are caused by fungal infections. The bacterial ones are the most devastating. Their effect is due to impacting the brood of honeybees. By denying the honey bee colony new bees to replace the aging and dying ones, the diseases cause a quick decline in the overall health and strength of the beehive colony they infect.
American foulbrood and European foulbrood are the most famous diseases of honey bees caused by bacteria. In the American version of the disaster, the larva of honey bees dies at the pupal or pre-pupal stages. In the Ropiness test, the thread of liquefied larva remains stretches to about 3-5 centimeters long! It can be confused with an opportunistic infection of European foulbrood. The disease identified as American Foulbrood is arguably the most widespread and deadly disease of honey bees. The spores of the bacteria that cause it can remain viable for up to 50 years. European foulbrood is equally widespread, but not as much as American Foulbrood.
To keep these terrors of beekeeping operations at bay, antibiotics are resort beekeepers might look to. Terramycin ranks up there in the choices of antibiotics to use. Its use however faces a number of challenges here including persistence in beehive products. Across the world, its legality for use in your beekeeping locality must be ascertained.
These challenges have made many beekeepers turn to using the antibiotics only as a preventive measure. Where you fail and find you have a bacterial disease infection, burning the beehive is usually the only option. Individual beekeepers make the choice to use antibiotics or not. Those that use Terramycin for preventing bacterial infections in their beekeeping operations avoid having to urn honeybee colonies in their beehives. Yeah, when burning, the colony goes down with the beehive!
 
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