American foul brood is a bacterial disease that kills bee larvae in the hive. Producers have struggled with it, largely successfully, for most of the past century. But the main weapon against it, the antibiotic oxytetracycline, or OCT, is no longer 100 percent effective. The OCT-impervious disease strain has also shown up in Alberta and British Columbia. Warriner said Saskatchewan beekeepers are worried because the disease will destroy a bee operation if not controlled.
Producers have something to worry about if they lose their main control method.
Don Nelson, an Agriculture Canada bee researcher, is trying to find ways to combat antibiotic-resistant strains. In some ways it's worse, because the spore load is so heavy. Starts in the hive Adult bees carry the disease into a hive's larvae chamber. An infected larva that dies while the chamber is open will dry up and become a spore-filled scale on the bottom of the chamber. Adult bees that clean up the scale transfer spores to another location.