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EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



ment, many of the conditions you can 

 control; others may be difflcult. You 

 can at least be sure that you import 

 no bees or used supplies which might 

 have been in an infected apiary. Use 

 no old combs and feed no honey of 

 which you do not know the history. 

 In this way the bacillus which causes 

 the disease in a large measure can be 

 kept out of the apiary. There are 

 conditions which are difflcult to, con- 

 trol. Should a nearby apiary be dis- 

 eased and some of the colonies be- 

 come weak or die out, it might be 

 difficult for you, in a dearth of nectar, 

 to keep your bees from robbing from 

 the diseased apiary and in this way 

 bring these disease-producing germs 

 to your healthy colonies. 



Some preliminary experiments have 

 been made but the results do not in- 

 dicate that drugs, in the treatment of 

 this disease, have the value advocated 

 by some English writers. 



European Foul Brood. 



European foul brood is another in- 

 fectious bee disease. It attacks the 

 brood at an earlier period in the 

 growth of the larvae, as a rule, than 

 American foul brood. The cause of 

 this disease is not definitely known. 

 Prom brood dead of this disease, 

 Cheshire and Cheyne isolated Bacillus 

 alvei. From their work it was long 

 supposed that Bacillus alvei was the 

 cause of the disease, but later investi- 

 gations make the value of their work 

 doubtful. 



A number of organisms have been 

 found in the larvae dead of this dis- 

 ease and some of them have been 

 described. One species has been en- 

 countered in our investigations of the 

 disease which is of special interest. 

 The individuals of this species are 

 quite small, apparently non-spore-pro- 

 ducing media. Until we know more 

 about this species, it will be referred 

 to as Bacillus "Y." Since the cause 

 is not positively known, the amount 

 of heat and chemical disinfectants to 

 destroy the virus has not been demon- 

 strated. If, later. Bacillus "Y" is 

 demonstrated to be the cause, we 

 shall expect that very much less heat 

 will be sufficient to kill it than is nec- 

 essary to kill Bacillus larvae, the 

 cause of American foul brood. Like- 

 wise we shall expect that disinfec- 

 tants will be much more readily effec- 

 tive. As the exciting cause has not 

 been demonstrated, the determination 



of these facts have not yet been made» 

 Until we know more about the etiol- 

 ogy of European foul brood, we can 

 do no better than to suggest the appli- 

 cation of the same principles which 

 are found advisable in American foul 

 brood. 



So-called Pickled Brood. 



"We refer to this disorder of the 

 brood as the "So-called Pickled Brood" 

 and not Pickle Brood, because the 

 condition which William R. Howard of 

 Fort Worth, Texas, described is not 

 what the bee-keepers know as Pickled 

 Brood. The exciting cause of this dis- 

 ease is not known. The larvae die at 

 that age just preceding or just after 

 capping. Some bee-keepers have a 

 theory that heredity plays an impor- 

 tant part as a predisposing cause. As 

 far as is known, it does not seem to 

 be infectious. 



Treatment. — This disease is treated 

 by some bee-keepers by requeening, 

 on the assumption that heredity is the 

 important factor in the production of 

 the disease. If more were known con- 

 cerning the etiology, the treatment 

 might be materially changed. 



Paralysis. 



Paralysis is a disease of the adult 

 bee. The cause of this malady is not 

 known. It does not seem to be in- 

 fectious although in some apiaries a 

 large number of colonies may be 

 affected at the same time. Some have 

 advanced the theory that the char- 

 acter of the food is the exciting cause. 



Treatment. — Since we know nothing^ 

 positively about the cause, we can 

 suggest very little in the way of treat- 

 ment. The removal of the stores from 

 the hive would tend to remedy the de- 

 fect if the character of the food was 

 an important factor in the etiology. 



I have thus briefly called your atten- 

 tion to the nature of bee diseases, the 

 etiology as far as it is known, and 

 suggested some of the principles upon 

 which the methods of treatment must 

 depend if such treatment is to be 

 most efficient. If we - should review 

 what we have just said concerning the 

 etiology and treatment of the differ- 

 ent diseases, we observe the following 

 facts : 



There is but one disease, American 

 foul brood, of which we know abso- 

 lutely the exciting cause. It is a 

 species of bacteria but there are many 



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