* 



UNITED STATES 



DEPARTMENT of AGRICULTURE 



DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 284 



Washington, D. C. 



Issued March, 1926 



THE STERILIZATION OF AMERICAN 

 FOULRROOD COMRS 



A. P. STURTEVANT 



Associate Apiculturist, Bee Culture Laboratory! Bureau of Entomology 



Introduction 



Methods 



Diseased material for tests 



Cultures 



Solutions tested 



CONT 



Page 



1 



5 

 5 

 6 

 7 

 8 

 8 



n 



10 



. 11 

 12 



ENTS 



Observations — Continued. 



Commercial alcohol-formalin solu 



tion 



Permeability of cappings 



Vacuum treatment 



Page 



- 



13 

 14 

 16 



Observations 



Perforation of cappings 



Cappings removed with knife 



Washing combs 



17 

 19 



Liquids of low surface tensic 



21 



other than ethyl alcohol 



Discussion 



21 



Miscellaneous solutions 



Conclusions 



25 



Solutions with diluted alcohol _ 



Literature cited 



27 









INTRODUCTION 



A new era in the treatment and control of American f oulbrood 

 has been opened by the use of disinfectants such as an alcohol- 

 formalin solution for the sterilization of combs infected with this 

 disease of the brood of bees. Widespread interest has been aroused 

 throughout the beekeeping industry by the apparent success of this 

 method of treatment, which eliminates to a great extent the large 

 losses previously caused by the necessary destruction of all combs 

 infected with American foulbrood. 



Numerous attempts have in the past been made to use formalde- 

 hyde gas as a disinfectant, but it failed to sterilize infected combs 

 completely except in a few carefully controlled cases, so that even- 

 tually the use of this material for disinfecting combs was entirely 

 abandoned. White (25, 26) 1 found that the gas penetrated the 

 combs slowly, even when used in a tightly sealed jar, and that as 

 usually applied in the apiary it was insufficient to disinfect the combs 

 completely. More recently Maassen and Bor chert (18) and Bor- 

 chert (1), experimenting with formaldehyde gas generated from 



1 Reference is made by number (italics) to " Literature cited," p. 27. 

 68773°— 26 1 



