Diseases of bees / Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of bees / Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/36 (page 12)
    FOUL BROOD DISEASE OF BEES ORDER, 1942 This Order, made by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries on the recommendation of the Bee Disease Advisory Committee, empowers County Agricultural Executive Committees to investigate suspected outbreaks of Foul Brood disease and to require the destruction of bees in affected colonies with their combs and quilts, and the adequate disinfection of hives, appliances and apparatus if, after laboratory examination of a sample comb or combs, the presence of foul brood disease is confirmed. If a bee-keeper suspects that a case of Foul Brood in his apiary has been. contracted from an unknown source of infection in his neighbourhood, or if he suspects that a case of Foul Brood, from which his bees may contract disease, exists in his neighbourhood and is not already being dealt with, he should at once inform the County Agricultural Officer of his County Agri- cultural Executive Committee. The address can be ascertained from the County Council Offices, or from notices appearing in the advertisement columns of the local newspapers. An inspection by an appointed officer of the bees in the area concerned will then be arranged. DISEASES OF ADULT BEES AND THEIR TREATMENT Our knowledge of the diseases of adult bees has made great progress since the 1914-1918 war, up to which time little was known of the nature of the maladies which affected bees from time to time. The prevalence and wide- spread nature of the disastrous malady known as “ Isle of Wight disease ’’ about 1919 greatly stimulated research work in this country and, as a result, several distinct maladies, exhibiting many symptoms in common, have come to be recognized; so that the designation ‘‘ Isle of Wight disease ’’ has long ceased to be justified and must give place to names indicating more exactly the specific nature of the various complaints. Since 1939, surveys have been carried out to determine the incidence and distribution of the various diseases of adult bees in England and Wales. The result of all this research and the general adoption of the movable comb hive is that we are now in an incomparably better position to gain and maintain control over these diseases than we have ever been before. In the following pages each of the diseases of adult bees known to occur in this country is discussed and the most up-to-date method of treatment explained. ACARINE DISEASE This disease is very common and occurs in every county in the British Isles. At the time of writing (1945) about one out of every six of the colonies of bees in England and Wales is suffering to a greater or lesser extent from this disease, and the loss of bees and honey annually as a result of its depredations is tremendous. This is all the more deplorable since, as a result of research work carried out Since 1918, such loss is now almost entirely preventable. Cause. Acarine disease is caused by the invasion of the thoracic tracheal system (breathing tubes) of the adult worker, drone, or queen bee by a parasitic mite, Acarapis woodi Rennie. Its life-cycle is completed in the PZ