The Occurrence of Diseases of Adult Bees, II. 9 



duction of the Isle of Wight disease into the United States. At this 

 conference it was decided unanimously that immediate action was 

 desirable. It was recognized, of course, that the failure to find the 

 Isle of Wight disease in the United States during the season of 1921 

 was not conclusive evidence that the disease is absent from this 

 country, but the far more important fact was to be considered that 

 never in the history of American beekeeping has there been any dam- 

 age from a disease of adult honeybees comparable to that reported 

 from Great Britain. It seemed justifiable to assume that the Isle 

 of Wight disease is not found in the United States, and therefore 

 desirable that, if possible, this scourge be kept out of the country. 



Immediately following the conference, and as a result of its recom- 

 mendations, the Secretary of Agriculture recommended to the Post- 

 master General that the postal regulations be so amended as to pro- 

 hibit the receipt through the mails of queenbees and their accom- 

 panying worker bees from all foreign countries except the Dominion 

 of Canada. It was thought that with this as a temporary precau- 

 tionary measure it would be possible to prevent the introduction of 

 the disease until such time as more complete protective measures 

 were available. The revised postal regulation was announced under 

 date of March 21, 1922. The action of the Dominion of Canada, 

 also taken at the advice of the committee of the apiculture section, 

 will be discussed later. This action made it possible to admit queen- 

 bees from Canada by an exception to the postal regulation with 

 safety. 



At the conference on March 9 the drafting of a bill for presenta- 

 tion to Congress was also discussed, and as a result a bill was intro- 

 duced into both Houses of Congress early in April to regulate foreign 

 commerce in the importation of adult honeybees into the United 

 States. This bill was amended at the hearing before the House of 

 Representatives Committee on Agriculture, passed both Houses as 

 amended, and was approved by the President August 31, 1922. The 

 history of this bill in Congress has been recorded by Fracker, Kea, 

 and Gooderham (27). 



Following the passage of the law, two conferences were held re- 

 garding the regulations provided for by the law for the exemption 

 of certain countries which were determined by the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture to be free of all diseases dangerous to adult honeybees. The 

 first was called by the American Honey Producers' League at St. 

 Louis, Mo., February 8, 1923, and the other by the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology at Washington on March 12. The rules and regulations (see 

 appendix) are based on the facts regarding the distribution of the 

 Isle of Wight disease presented in this circular. 



In several instances, before the cause of the Isle of Wight disease 

 was discovered, statements appeared in bee journals of the United 

 States to the effect that the disease is present in this country, but as 

 these records are without value they are not specifically mentioned. 

 The symptoms described by beekeepers of Great Britain for the Isle 

 of Wight disease were so nearly identical with some of those observed 

 for diseases of adult bees in the United States as to make such belief 

 plausible. As has been explained earlier (p. 6), this can not be 

 accepted as evidence that the disease is actually present. 



The failure to find any cases of the Isle of Wight disease in 1921, 

 together with the much stronger evidence based on the lack of any 



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