February, '21] sturtevaxt: mixed infections 127 



10. The person or persons having charge of the work should have 

 ample authority to deal with all diseased material as he or they deem best 

 under the circumstances. . No compensation should be allowed for 

 destruction of diseased material, or material which for any reason is a 

 menace so far as bee disease is concerned. 



11. Selling, giving away, bartering, owning, keeping, or exposing to 

 other bees, an\' diseased material should be made unlawful. 



• 12. The person or persons in charge of the work should have authority 

 to require that all bees be kept in movable frame hives. In case of 

 refusal to transfer, authority should be given to order the destruction 

 without compensation to the owner of all colonies not kept in such hives. 

 13. Sufficient funds should be available to make the foulbrood eradi- 

 cation work effective throudiout the state. 



Chairman Paddock: The next, by Mr. A. P. Sturtevant, will be 

 read by Mr. Ernest R. Root of Medina. 



MIXED INFECTION IN THE BROOD DISEASES OF BEES 



By Arnold P. .Sturtev.ant, Specialist in the Bacteriology of Bee Diseases, Bureau oj 

 Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



The two principal brood diseases of bees, European foulbrood and 

 American foulbrood, heretofore have not been found associated together 

 commonly in the same colony. The generally accepted belief has been 

 that it is indeed a rare occurrence to find both diseases under these 

 conditions. Sacbrood, on the other hand, is much more often found in 

 greater or less quantity associated with either European foulbrood or 

 American foulbrood, but seldom assuming dangerous proportions, 

 either alone or in conjunction with the others. Statistics for the past 

 few years, however, show that these cases of what may be called mixed 

 infection are probably more common than was previously supposed and 

 may account for some of the puzzling instances where colonies have not 

 responded to treatment in the customary manner, thereby causing 

 beekeepers to believe they have some new form of brood disease, or that 

 the disease is showing some new unheard of characteristics. 



Cases of so-called mixed infections are not at all uncommon among 

 human diseases. Where this condition occurs, such as when a person 

 affected with typhoid fever develops pneumonia at the same time, it is 

 always the individual to whom the term mixed infection is applied. 

 It is a somewhat different matter in the case of the brood diseases of 

 bees. In the first place, so far as is known, the organisms causing these 

 two diseases. Bacillus larvae of American foulbrood and Bacillus pluton 

 of European foulbrood, have never been found together in the same 

 individual larva. It is, therefore, the colon v as whole which is to 



