BROOD AND ADULT BEE DISEASES 

 IN SWITZERLAND 



By Otto Morgenthaler, Dr.(phil.) 



(Eidg. milchwirtschaftliche und bakteriologische Anstalt, Liebefeld 



bei Bern. Director : Professor Dr. R. Burri) 



First of all I should like to thank Sir John Russell and the Bee 

 Research Advisory Committee, who invited me to to-day's meeting, 

 for the great honour of being able to speak to you. I know that this 

 honour does not apply to me personally but to my coimtry, and 

 especially to my friend. Dr. Leuenberger, who died in March of this 

 year, and who 28 years ago gave us a foul brood law and , for German- 

 speaking Switzerland, a foul brood insurance, which up to the present 

 has fully stood the test, technically and administratively, and has 

 given beekeepers complete satisfaction. Since the English Bee- 

 keepers are also .working toward a foul brood law and a foul brood 

 insurance, I shall speak to-day principally about our experience 

 with foul brood and only at the close shall I briefly touch upon our 

 anxieties and our successes with diseases of adult bees. 



Time does not permit me to go into detail, and this is not 

 necessary, as Mr. Illingworth, two years ago, has given you an 

 excellent account of bee disease legislation in Switzerland. So I 

 shall emphasize only three points which to me seem important for 

 the success of the Swiss method. I shall be very glad to give 

 information about special points in the discussion. 



The first important step was that we were able to convince our 

 government of the economic importance of beekeeping. By so 

 doing, bees were accorded the same legal protection as other 

 domestic animals. Bee diseases were included in the federal animal 

 disease law and now there are government funds for their control 

 as for combating other animal diseases. The federal veterinary 

 office gives yearly about 10,000 fr. for the control of bee diseases ; 

 that is to say, mostly for salaries to the bee inspectors for their work 

 among sick colonies. The cantonal goverrmients together give an 

 equal amount for this purpose. The beekeepers do not give any con- 

 tribution either to the federal government or to the canton. We 

 find that this sacrifice on the part of the government is not too 

 high it we consider the total expenditure for the control of all animal 



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