426 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FOUL BROOD. 



Special Bulletin No. 58. 



The present bulletin is not the result of recent investigations, carried 

 on at this station, nor does the writer claim or desire any credit for 

 compiling its contents. It has been taken almost wholly from Farmer's 

 Bulletin 442, of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, 

 by permission. This bulletin was written in 1911, by Dr. E. F. Phillips, 

 a man well and favorably known to many Michigan beekeepers. 



Tlie particular reason for issuing this bulletin at this time is to 

 supply the means of recognizing both the more familiar American foul 

 brood, and the newer, European foul brood, a disease acquired by Michi- 

 gan quite recently. Furthermore the writer has found much discourage- 

 ment and apprehension among the older bee-keepers, a few of whom 

 have kept bees most of their lives and never met either one of these 

 diseases. While such men are fortunate in never having had to deal 

 with the diseases, they are working under a disadvantage unless they 

 become familiar with the appearance and treatment in some way. 



Dr. Phillips describes foul brood and its treatment as follows: 



NATURE OF THE DISEASES. 



"Tlieie arc two recognized infectious diseases of the brood of bees, 

 now known as American foul brood and European foul brood. Both 

 diseases weaken colonies by reducing the number of emerging bees 

 needed to replace the old adult bees which die from natural or other 

 causes. In neither case are adult bees affected, so far as known. The 

 means used by the beekeeper in deciding which disease is present is the 

 difference in the appearance of the larvae dead of the two diseases. 

 That the diseases are entirely distinct can not now be doubted, since 

 they show certain differences in the age of the larvae affected, in their 

 response to treatment, and in the appearance of the dead larvae. This 

 is made still more certain by a study of the bacteria present in the dead 

 larvae. Reports are sometimes received that a colony is infected with 

 both diseases at the same time. While this is possible, it is not by 

 any means the rule, and such cases are usually not authentically 

 reported. There is no evidence that chilled or starved brood develops 

 into an infectious disease or that dead brood favors the development 

 of a disease." 



NAMES OF THE DISEASES. 



"The names American foul brood and European foul brood were ap- 

 plied to these diseases by the Bureau of Entomology, of this depart- 

 ment, to clear up the confusion in names which formerly existed. By 

 retaining the words ''foul brood" in each name the disease-inspection 

 laws then in force could be interpreted as applying to both diseases. 

 These names were in no way intended to designate geographical distri- 

 bution, since both diseases did exist and do now exist in both Europe 

 and America, but were chosen primarily because they were convenient 



