South Africa
25 March 2009
The Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI) of the Agricultural Research
Council (ARC) has recently been surveying honeybee colonies and retail honey in
South Africa for the presence of American Foul Brood (AFB), an extremely
serious brood disease of honeybees, as a project for the national Department of
Agriculture (DoA).
This disease, caused by the spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae,
has thus far never been reported in sub-Saharan Africa. In other parts of the
world AFB has caused large scale colony losses and as it is extremely
contagious and very difficult to eradicate, has been the subject of extensive
eradication and control programmes. This is the major reason why honey and
other honeybee products entering South Africa are required by law to be
irradiated, in an effort to prevent the disease from entering the local
honeybee population.
Unfortunately, AFB has now been found in some colonies and apiaries in the
Western Cape. At present it is not known exactly how serious or extensive the
disease outbreak is, but there may be the potential for a full scale AFB
outbreak in South Africa, so the Department of Agriculture may have to act
accordingly and take the necessary precautionary measures to prevent this.
Accordingly, the Department of Agriculture will conduct an urgent yet
extensive delimiting survey of the Western Cape to determine how widespread and
widespread the AFB infection is and particularly, whether it is also present in
the wild honeybee population. This survey will be conducted in collaboration
with the ARC-PPRI, relevant Department of Agriculture role players and
beekeepers.
Once the extent and distribution of the AFB presence is known, the
Department of Agriculture in consultation with organized beekeeping and other
stakeholders in SA will decide on the appropriate course of action to be
followed.
As a contingency measure, beekeepers are strongly urged to adapt extreme
precautionary measures so as to not spread the disease further and to prevent
their apiaries from contracting the disease. This applies to all beekeepers in
South Africa, but particularly those in the Western Cape. The suggested
measures are as follows:
* Beekeepers should endeavour to keep all apiaries distinct from each other,
that is, do not move honeybee colonies from apiary to apiary
* Beekeepers should not place their colonies in the near proximity of colonies
belonging to other beekeepers
* Do not move equipment (brood boxes, supers, frames) from apiary to apiary, or
from colony to colony
* Sterilise all beekeeping equipment (hive tools, gloves) with alcohol or
boiling water after use, so as not to spread the infection from apiary to
apiary or from colony to colony
* Do not put out wet supers for bees to feed from
* Do not feed colonies with anything containing honey or pollen
* Keep honey robbing to an absolute minimum and hence, keep beekeeping
management to a minimum
* Beeswax should not be moved in or from the Western Cape and producers of wax
foundation should not accept wax from the Western Cape and should not sell
foundation that might have wax from the Western Cape.
Beekeepers who consider that their colonies are either infected with AFB or
that colonies have shown any extreme foulbrood symptoms in the past six months,
are urged to contact:
Dr Mike Allsopp
Cell: 083 288 5059
E-mail: allsoppm@arc.agric.za to
arrange for colony inspection or alternatively
Mr Jan Hendrik Venter
Cell: 072 348 8431 or
E-mail: janhendrikv@nda.agric.za
Typical symptoms of AFB are discoloured and sunken brood, with the diseased
larvae or pupae forming a black or brown scale at the bottom of the cell, and
with the diseased larvae having a muscous like (non-granular) texture and being
extremely ropy, before it dries to form a hard scale. Entire brood frames can
be affected, giving the frames a shotgun-like appearance, and badly infected
colonies are likely to collapse and die.
The bacterium that causes AFB does not affect people and therefore is not a
danger to human health. This is a disease of insects, specifically of
honeybees. It kills off the young, developing, non-adult stages of honeybees
(namely the bee larvae and pupae that are still sealed in the brood cells of
the comb in the bee hive).
Enquiries:
Tsotso Sehoole
Tel: 012 319 7317
Cell: 083 265 8728
E-mail: CDCoC@nda.agric.za
Issued by: Department of Agriculture
25 March 2009
