684 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Junk 1 



"new light on foul brood." 

 In the British Bee Journal for April 30 and 

 May 1 there is a general discussion of some new 

 investigations made by Dr. Maassen under the 

 above caption. It probably would not be inter- 

 esting to gi\e the whole of this, but we will here 

 give the summing-up as found in the British Bee 

 Journal, pages 183 and 184. 



To sum up Dr. Maassen's important work, we find: 1. That 

 three different organisms may produce foul brood, two of which 

 are usually associated in different phases of the disease. These 

 are Bacillus alvei, Cheshire; Bacillus Brandenburgiensis, Maas- 

 sen (syn. B. Buni, Burri, B. larva. White); Streptococcus apis, 

 Maassen (syn. B. Guntheri, Burri). 



2. That when the disease attacks unsealed larvae B. alvti is 

 present, and in viralent cases it is also found in sealed brood. 



3. That Streptococcus apis of "sour brood" is usually associated 

 with B. al-vei. 



4. That B. Brandenburgiensis is found in the sealed larva only 

 just before it changes to a pupa, and is frequently associated with 

 B. alvei. 



5. That the two bacilli are antagonistic to each other, and are 

 constantly struggling for supremacy, someiimes the one and 

 sometimes the oiher getting the upper hand. 



6. That other bacteria are sometimes associated with Strepto- 

 coccus apis which kill its cocci, so that bees are able to remove 

 the dead larvs. and in some instances during a good honey-fiow 

 the disease may be held in check or the colony become for a 

 time cured. 



7. That the disease in which either or both bacilli are present 

 is equally infectious. 



The editor of our esteemed contemporary 

 seems to taice the view that some of the conclu- 

 sions arrived at by our own Dr. White, of the 

 Department of Agriculture, are incorrectly drawn. 

 We have carefully gone over this whole discus- 

 sion, but we do not see that the conclusions are 

 so widely different from those arrived at by Dr. 

 White. Indeed, in many respects the work of 

 the two men runs along in parallel lines. 



For example, both find in the ropy type of 

 foul brood the same bacillus, though under dif- 

 ferent names. Dr. Maassen designates it as Ba- 

 cillus Brandenburgiensis. Another name is B. 

 Burri, after Burri, a bacteriologist of note, while 

 Dr. White calls it B. lar-ua. By whatever name 

 it may be called, all three of the bacteriologists 

 agree that it is one of the pathogenic microbes 

 found in ropy foul brood. Dr. White makes 

 no claim that it is the .to/f cause, while Dr. Maas- 

 sen appears to share the opinion that .5. al-z'ei as 

 well as Streptococcus apis are also present and also 

 pathogenic — that is, they are disease-forming. 

 There is no contradiction between them on this 

 point. 



Again, while Dr. White has found B. al-z'ei in 

 the ropy type, so far as we remember it was only 

 in the combination of black (non-ropy) and ropy 

 foul brood. Dr. Maassen, on the other hand, 

 seems to hold the view that B. al-vei and B. Bran- 

 denburgiensis (B. larva-) are both the primal 

 causes, the one struggling against the other for 

 supremacy, but B. alvei being more predominant 

 in the unsealed stages of the dead matter, while 

 the other seems to be more in the supremacy aft- 

 er the sealing. 



This, in our judgment, goes a long way to 

 confirm the statement made by Dr. White, who 

 finds that B. alvei is always present in black 

 brood which mainly manifests itself in the un- 

 sealed stage of affected brood, while B. larva- is 

 always found in ropy foul brood, which disease 

 shows itself mostly in the sealed brood. 



Again, Dr. White finds that the B. larva-, B. 

 Brandenburgiensis , or B. Burri, or whatever we 

 may call the microbe, will not grow in ordinary 



beef gelatin for pure-culture work; but that it 

 does grow in the juices of larvae. Dr. Maassen 

 finds a difficulty in propagating the same bacillus 

 in beef gelatin; but, like Dr. White, he does find 

 that it will grow in larval juices, and also in a 

 product made from brains and albumen. Here 

 again we have a harmony of opinion. 



Dr. Maassen seems to take the view that B. al-- 

 vei is always found in the ropy type of foul 

 brood, while Dr. White finds it only occasional- 

 ly when there is a combination of the two dis- 

 eases. 



It is not entirely clear to us that the black 

 brood of Europe is the same as the foul brood of 

 this country. The difference in environment 

 may account for the difference in findings. 



The summary of the whole matter is that Dr. 

 Maassen believes that ropy foul brood is caused 

 primarily by three microbes, the two most prom- 

 inent being B. alvei and B. Brandenburgiensis. 

 Dr. White inclines to the view that ropy 

 or American foul brood is caused by B. larva 

 or, what is probably the same thing, B. Bran- 

 denburgiensis; that 5. alvei is not found in nor- 

 mal ropy foul brood, but he does find it invari- 

 ably in black brood or what the Department has 

 differentiated as " European " foul brood. 



Speaking of American and European foul brood 

 to designate respectively the old-fashioned ropy 

 foul brood and black brood, some regard these 

 qualifying adjectives as very unfortunate, be- 

 cause European foul brood is rarely found in 

 Europe, but is very common in some portions of 

 the United States; while American foul brood is 

 ver)' common in Europe as well as in America 

 But we regard this question of English names 

 as unimportant. At the present time there seems 

 to be a divergence of opinion regarding the pri- 

 mal causes of ropy foul brood, while Europe 

 seems to be silent on the causes of black brood. 



As the writer has been unable to go over this 

 entire discussion on the printed page for the 

 reasons stated elsewhere, depending on his ears 

 only, it is possible he may not have stated cor- 

 rectly the views held by American and European 

 scientists. 



Later. — We have gone over this whole matter 

 again; and it is increasingly evident, first, that 

 between the bacteriologists of Europe and Amer- 

 ica there is more and more an agreement in the 

 findings. Second, that the real black brood, such 

 as was found in New York, apparently does not 

 exist in Europe except in combination with the 

 ropy type of foul brood. The descriptions of the 

 external characteristics, so far as we have been 

 able to find them, do not indicate a black brood 

 such as we have in America, but a modified form. 

 If this be true, it will be very easy to harmonize 

 to a great extent the variations in findings of the 

 bacteriologists. We have every reason to hope 

 that the time will soon come when the slight con- 

 fusion now existing will be cleared up. 



For the benefit of our European cousins we 

 may remark that there is a very marked difference 

 between what we have been calling black brood 

 and the old-fashioned ropy foul brood. The dif- 

 ference in the character and odor of the dead 

 larva? is very decided, and this is also true of the 

 effects. It is rarely true that the one disease is 

 supplanted by the other, or that both are in the 

 hive at one and the same time. 



