140 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 15 



Honey as a Source of Infection 



With this source eliminated the first question was whether the intro- 

 duction and sale of honey, bottled and otherwise, through the regular 

 channels of trade would bring back disease into clean yards as a result 

 of the exposure of the containers after they are emptied. This has not 

 proved to be a serious matter. In fact nearly every Wisconsin city 

 has remained free from. American foulbrood until infected apiaries were 

 introduced. Diseased yards were of course moved into certain cities, 

 including Madison and Fond du Lac, years ago, but such places as Eau 

 Claire, Superior, LaCrosse, Manitowoc, and Racine are still apparently 

 free from this disease, while Sheboygan and Antigo have received 

 infection in recent years through the introduction of diseased yards. 



Another form of evidence on this point is the fact that reinfections 

 are not occurring in serious numbers. The exact figures on this point 

 are before me for only Milwaukee and Jefferson counties. Out of a 

 total of 503 different yards inspected and reinspected during a three 

 year campaign, a total of 180 were infected. During this period in the 

 two counties only nine apiaries which were free from infection at first, 

 developed disease from all causes during the campaign. Only half 

 of these were inside the city limits of a city of over 1,000 population, 

 although over 95% of the grocery and interstate honey business of the 

 two counties was carried on in such places. The nine yards mentioned 

 include all apiaries which might have been infected but were missed by 

 the inspector when examined the first time, as well as those in the 

 immediate vicinity of infected yards where the bees robbed out infected 

 honey. 



Treatment Compared with Destruction 



Inspectors have always felt some doubt regarding the permanent 

 effect of prescribing treatment rather than destruction for diseased 

 colonies. Successful disease control in individual colonies, however, 

 proves to be the rule rather than the exception, that is, American 

 foulbrood may be retained in the yard but is almost without exception, 

 eliminated from the treated colony. 



Comparing the results of treatment and destruction, I find that 

 in four counties, Dane, Jefferson, Milwaukee, and Calumet, we have 

 the foulbrood record since 1918 of 163 infected apiaries in which we know 

 the control method employed by the beekeeper. Of these, 64 applied 

 the shaking treatment, while 99 destroyed their infected colonies, re- 

 peating as often as necessary. Among those who treated the diseased 

 colonies less than one-half (27) had yards free from foulbrood at the 



