AFB Research

Test for devastating beehive disease being developed by Marlborough tech firm

A Blenheim biotechnology company is working on a new in-field tool to quickly diagnose American foulbrood disease that wipes out beehvies.

www.stuff.co.nz

I wonder what will come of this and how useful/practical it will be?

 

[Otto]

Maybe I am missing something as I don't really get this.
By way of introduction this article goes on about how time consuming it is to inspect for AFB. Then it introduces the idea, which is a test kit that takes 30 minutes to get an answer, presumably testing a hive/cell that is suspect (i.e. has already been inspected). There are already test kits available for this (although I have never used one).
I'm all for new ideas and trying things out but I struggle to see how this is going to help us much. I would think a sniffer dog or the entrance swab test @JohnF has developed would be comfortably superior to this.

 

[Bee Real]

The article
Says: "Once the disease is potentially detected then there is a further field test that the beekeeper completes onsite to confirm the presence of AFB.”
"The problem is that traditional identification is very slow.

What the hell???? What further field test are they talking about??? Someone should point out to Rex that once the cell shows the classic signs of AFB it is already a confirmed afb.

I m hoping the reporter has misquoted Rex. Otherwise, he is saying the beekeepers in his company are not confident in identifying afb by visual inspections.

As the article also quotes Rex saying: "In an industry as large as ours there is varying levels of skills and identification relies on an individual’s personal abilities with results open to interpretation”
.
What part of the owner of the hives is responsible to ensure all his beekeepers are competent in identifying AFB he is missing....

 

[frazzledfozzle]

The article
Says: "Once the disease is potentially detected then there is a further field test that the beekeeper completes onsite to confirm the presence of AFB.”
"The problem is that traditional identification is very slow.

What the hell???? What further field test are they talking about???

As the article also quotes Rex saying: "with results open to interpretation”

Completely agree @Bee Real traditional identification is very quick all you need is a matchstick.
The only additional test we do is ask the other To have a look double check.

if in doubt it gets burnt anyway there’s no other testing done.

 

[JohnF]

Conflict of interest: as Otto mentioned, we developed a hive entrance test called the Foster method.

When I saw this, I did wonder whether the company was building on our work? (Openly published as a pre-print ie not peer reviewed but going through the process currently).

But it seems to read that the test can be used as a ropy cell confirmation - and their other comments about slow times seem to reference the days when goopy matchsticks got sent to AQ for a 5 day culture test.

So I’m biased - but might be difficult to composite test as well eg an apiary of 20

 

[Maggie]

But it seems to read that the test can be used as a ropy cell confirmation - and their other comments about slow times seem to reference the days when goopy matchsticks got sent to AQ for a 5 day culture test.

Can't say I have ever sent a goopy matchstick to AQ. Most beekeepers have matches in their vehicles, unless of course they light their ciggies or smokers with a lighter!

What the hell???? What further field test are they talking about??? Someone should point out to Rex that once the cell shows the classic signs of AFB it is already a confirmed afb.

How many hives do you run or have run Bee Real? Taylor Pass are one of the biggest operators in the Sth Is and they have some fairly clued up beekeepers working for them

 

[JohnF]

Can't say I have ever sent a goopy matchstick to AQ. Most beekeepers have matches in their vehicles, unless of course they light their ciggies or smokers with a lighter!

I think it used to be a lot more common than it is now Maggie. Suspect samples probably go to MPI lab now, rather than AQ but that diagnostic confirmation was always funded by the management plan.

But to the test at hand, it may use our swab idea - but it reads that it would be used for confirming suspicious samples. And in that case, not sure what sort of uptake that would get. . .

 

[Bee Real]

How many hives do you run or have run Bee Real?

I have never kept more than 10 hives, but I am confident identifying AFB at early stages of infection. I don’t need a test to confirm my visual field diagnosis.

 

[John B]

I have found hundreds of AFB in my lifetime and it's usually pretty obvious but I can recall three occasions where I couldn't be certain and in those cases I got it confirmed by a test. I also remember one case where an AP2 identified a hive as having AFB and because I had checked it for a friend a couple of weeks before I went back to confirm and it was just a bad case of PMS. My friend was too old and infirm to look after the hive properly so I arranged for a new person to take it over.
I don't really need tests to confirm AFB but they can be really useful when you have a large outbreak caused by your hives robbing somebody else's and you can clean out those hives that have a high spore load as they are going to eventually go clinical anyway.

 

[Maggie]

I have found hundreds of AFB in my lifetime and it's usually pretty obvious but I can recall three occasions where I couldn't be certain and in those cases I got it confirmed by a test. I also remember one case where an AP2 identified a hive as having AFB and because I had checked it for a friend a couple of weeks before I went back to confirm and it was just a bad case of PMS. My friend was too old and infirm to look after the hive probably so I arranged for a new person to take it over.
I don't really need tests to confirm AFB but they can be really useful when you have a large outbreak caused by your hives robbing somebody else's and you can clean out those hives that have a high spore load as they are going to eventually go clinical anyway.

Yes, I agree uncertainty can happen at times at times with good experience, though not often.

Once as an AP2 on exotic surveillance I inspected a hive not showing clinical signs, but with faint AFB smell. I took samples of both bees and larvae and visited an AP1 that afternoon with these. The samples were put under a light (don't quote me on this type of light, but I think it was fluoroscopic light) and theoretically the AFB should have showed up on the samples, but this didn't happen. I was absolutely adamant the hive had AFB. So all the specimens were sent to the lab, and yes I was right - AFB did show on one of the samples.

 

[John B]

I suspect smelling AFB is a bit like those that like the taste of coriander. Only some people can do it. I have been in a truck with my father and he declared there was an AFB in the apiary before he even got out the door of the truck. Personally I can smell it a little bit but only if it's absolutely rotten.