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Bee Diseases and Enemies 403 
The color varies, but is frequently light yellow or brown 
and the head is often almost black. The body is swollen 
and the contents watery and the head may be quite hard. 
There is no ropiness. This disease is usually not the cause 
of any serious loss in the apiary and as a rule no treatment 
is necessary. The most serious aspect of this disease is 
that it is often mistaken for European foul brood or American 
foul brood and the colony is treated accordingly. The 
cause is a filterable virus. 
Methods of spread. 
Since all three of these diseases are infectious they are 
spread in much the same way. It has long been recognized 
that it is unsafe to feed honey from a diseased colony and 
probably most cases are due to the carrying of the virus in 
honey, as in robbing or feeding. It is well, therefore, to prac¬ 
tice the following precautionary measures: 
(1) Do not allow weak colonies to be robbed out. 
(2) Never feed honey purchased on the open market. 
(3) If possible keep all honey from diseased apiaries out 
of the neighborhood. 
(4) In introducing purchased queens, transfer them to 
clean cages and destroy the old cage, candy and accompany¬ 
ing workers. 
(5) Colonies of bees should never be purchased unless it 
is certain that they are free from disease. 
(6) The purchase of old combs and second-hand supplies 
is dangerous unless it is certain that they come from healthy 
apiaries. 
Treatment. 
The treatment of an infectious bee disease consists pri¬ 
marily in the elimination or removal of the cause of the 
disease. In treating a disease, therefore, the aim of the 
manipulation is to remove or destroy all the virus causing 
the disease. It should be remembered that the effort is 
not to save the larvae that are already dead or dying but to 
