CATCH THE BUZZ
AFB Found In South Africa. Antibiotics Not Being Considered, Yet.
By Alan Harman
American Foulbrood has been found in South Africa for the first time and authorities are mulling an eradication program.
The disease, caused by the spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, has never been previously reported in sub-Saharan Africa.
Department of Agriculture plant health director Alice Baxter says AFB was found during a survey by the Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI) of the Agricultural Research Council of honeybee colonies and retail honey in South Africa for the presence of the disease.
Mike Allsopp, head of the Honeybee Research Section at the PPRIs Agricultural Research Center, became aware of the disease when a beekeeper experienced problems with unhealthy colonies.
It was first thought to be European Foul Brood, which hit Western Cape apiaries last year, but tests at PPRI’s laboratory in Pretoria came up positive for AFB.
Standard operating procedures for eradicating the disease is to burn the hive, including the bees, wax, frames and honey, and bury the ashes.
Infected apiaries could face a quarantine of up to 18 months.
“The bad news is that AFB has now been found in some colonies and some apiaries in the Western Cape,” Baxter says. “The disease has been confirmed using all standard diagnostic tests, and the identification is considered to be entirely reliable.”
The Western Cape is a province in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Cape Town, the country’s main aviation hub. Until 1994, Western Cape was part of the huge Cape Province.
“At present it is not known how serious or extensive the disease outbreak is, but a precautionary approach requires that we consider there to be the potential for a full-scale AFB outbreak in South Africa, and to act accordingly,” Baxter says.
It’s not known how AFB entered South Africa. All imported honey and honeybee products are irradiated in a regime designed to block its entry and it’s thought untreated honey smuggled into the country could be the source.
The Department of Agriculture has been conducting an urgent but extensive delimiting survey of the Western Cape to determine how widespread and extensive the AFB infection is, and particularly, whether it is present in the wild honeybee population.
“Once the extent and distribution of the AFB presence is known, the DoA in consultation with organized beekeeping and other stakeholders will decide on the appropriate course of action to be followed,” Baxter says. “This is likely to entail an attempt to quarantine and eradicate the disease.”
In the interim, beekeepers are strongly urged to adapt extreme precautionary measures so as to not spread the disease further, and to prevent their apiaries from contracting the disease. This applies to all beekeepers in South Africa, but particularly those in the Western Cape.
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They have been advised to keep all apiaries distinct from each other and not move honeybee colonies from apiary to apiary; not to place colonies in the near proximity of colonies belonging to other beekeepers; not to move equipment (brood boxes, supers, frames) from apiary to apiary, or from colony to colony; to sterilize all beekeeping equipment (hive tools, gloves) with alcohol or boiling water after use; not to put out wet supers for bees to feed from; not to feed colonies with anything containing honey or pollen; keep robbing to an absolute minimum, and hence, keep beekeeping management to a minimum.
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Beekeepers are being urged to contact Allsopp if they consider their colonies either infected with AFB or have shown any symptoms in the past six months.
Allsopp tells Bee Culture he is trying to complete a scientific report on the outbreak before the end of this month.
“So far it is only in the Western Cape, but already spread over some 200 kilometers (125 miles), and in at least four or five commercial beekeeping operations,” he says.
“No decision yet on the course of action to be taken, but we should know quite soon.”
Allsopp says antibiotics are unlikely to be an option.
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“A couple of beekeepers want to use them, but I don't think it is an option that is being seriously considered,” he says. “All advice that we have received (including from the U.S.) is for us to not go that route.”
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