Apiculture (0+1)

Bee Diseases

Honey bees are attacked by a large number of diseases which are caused by different organisms including virus, bacteria, protozoan and mites both ectoparasitic and endoparasitic. The extent of damage varies from death of some brood or adults to complete loss of colonies. The disease spreads from one colony to other through different manipulations done in the apiary as well as through robber bees, swarms and drifting bees. Brief account of symptoms and control measures is given in the tabular form below which can also help in differentiating one disease from the other.
Bee Diseases:
Brood Diseases:

	American Foul Brood	European Foul Brood	Sac Brood/Thai sac brood
Causative Organism	Paenibacillus larvae (bacteria)	Melissococcus pluton (bacteria)	Virus (sac brood in A. mellifera and Thai sac brood in A. cerana
Time of death	Late larval or early pupal stage	Coiled larvae in unsealed cell (usually young unsealed larvae sometime older sealed larvae)	Late larval stage; (usually older sealed larvae sometimes young unsealed larvae)
Cappings	Sunken and punctured	Dead brood in uncapped stage	Capping removed or punctured often with two holes.
Colour of dead brood	Off white to light cream to brown; coffee brown to dark brown or almost black	Yellowish white to grey or dark brown, dark brown or almost black (Fig. 17.2) as compared to glittering white in case of normal brood (Fig. 17.1)	Straw coloured, starts darkening from head
Position of dead brood	Lying flat on cell base	Coiled, twisted or collapsed	Extended with head curled upright in cells (Fig. 17.3)
Consistency of dead brood	Sticky to ropy	Soft and gummy; rarely sticky or ropy, granular	Sac like with watery content
Odour of dead brood	Glue pot, putrid faint	Slightly sour to penetratingly sour, Putrid fish	None to slightly sour; faint sour
Type of brood affected	Worker, rarely drone or queen	Worker, drone and queen	Worker only
Control	Terramycin @ 0.250 – 0.400g in 5lt sugar syrup feeding	Feed Terramycin @ 0.2g in 500ml conc. Sugar syrup	No effective cure




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