European Foul Brood (EFB) Outbreak in Scotland 2009

This is a compilation of the posts relating to this outbreak. For an overview of the condition please look at the pdf file first which contains some superb pictures.
These articles will be updated in date order so that you can follow the development of the disease.

26/07/2009 EFB Outbreak - Latest update from Gavin Ramsay

The view of the people on the ground was that the EFB outbreak was something new (symptoms in sealed brood, test kit gave a negative) but when I sent
that report to Mike Brown, head of the National Bee Unit in York, he was persuasive that this was normal EFB.  If you want to find it before colonies
are very weakened then bees will be cleaning out dead young larvae and scales.  The signs are then mostly under cappings.

So - please - the first report was misleading.  Please go to the updated file on the SBA website? http://www.scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/services/html/diseases.html
as that is where various updates and advice will be found.  For example, a few

Please don't come near Perthshire and Angus unless you are already here!

Everything I hear suggests that it may not have jumped S of the Forth despite one of the commercial guys working there.  However Perthshire and
Angus has a *lot* of infection, so anyone who moves hive N of the Tay for heather could have moved it back into the area in the last few years.  Yes,
few years.

Yesterday we updated the Diseases page on the SBA website.  You will find there an updated report on the Tayside outbreak, a provisional note on
apiary hygiene, a direct link to the file of SGRPID contacts in case anyone needs a bee inspector and a link to the excellent DEFRA (National
Bee Unit at York) leaflet on foulbroods.

There is also a series of notes on the page written as the incident has unfolded.  We will continue to keep everyone informed by updating this
page on the website, so please pass on this link to your contacts in Scottish beekeeping:

http://www.scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/services/html/diseases.html

Please use this link so that updates are not missed.

The observant amongst you will have noticed that the 17th July update of the report no longer talks about a 'new variant' of EFB, and this is the
message going out in the next issue of the Scottish Beekeeper.  There are still contrasting views on this, but we are accepting DEFRA's view that the
symptoms seen, which differ from the traditional descriptions many of us have learned, are indeed typical EFB.

There will be a meeting in Edinburgh on Tuesday and we are expecting more clarity on the situation then.  However we all have to be realistic: there
is a small team of inspectors trying their best to survey a very large number of colonies in the infected area.  This is inevitably going to take
time to complete, and requires cooperation from beekeepers of all kinds probably into next year and perhaps beyond.

It would be really helpful if people particularly in E Scotland could have a close look at their brood combs.  Cappings with changed colour or
irregularities are worth opening to see what is inside.  See the photographs in the report.  Please keep me informed if you have suspicious
finds or even if you believe your area to be free.  The disease carries a legal requirement to notify the authorities, but especially if caught
early it is not necessarily a death sentence for the colony.


27/07/2009 From: Magnus Peterson

Sent: 27 July 2009 11:54
To: Magnus Peterson (Home)
Cc: GAVIN RAMSAY
Subject: Dunblane and Stirling Beekeepers: possible spread of European Foul Brood disease in our area

Hello everyone again.  More bad news I am afraid.  Yesterday Gavin Ramsay diagnosed very likely European Foul Brood in both the apiary I share with Rob McGowan at
Kinbuck, and also in the Association apiary at the University of Stirling.  This still awaits confirmation by lab tests, but I believe we must treat it as indicating a likely wide spread of the infection into our area.

I am therefore advising three things:

1. We should all observe a voluntary standstill on movement of bee colonies by our members until the situation is clarified.  This means that I would strongly advise against members taking bees up to Sheriffmuir for the heather this year.  Our heather picnic will then take place with little risk of being stung!

2. We should all be vigilant in trying to find suspicious signs of EFB among our bees, and if we find them, should report our suspicions to

Gavin Ramsay,
Bee Diseases Convener,
Scottish Beekeepers' Association,
Park View,
Station Road,
Errol,
Perth PH2 7SN
Tel: 01592- 840582. email:
gavinramsay@btinternet.com

and MUST BY LAW REPORT THEM TO SGRPID
Broxden Business Park
Lamberkine Drive
Perth
PH1 1RX
Tel: 01738 602000
Fax: 01738 602001
Email: SGRPID.Perth@scotland.gsi.gov.uk


3. We should all, where appropriate, and in particular if visiting apiaries other than those with only our own stocks of bees on them, observe rigorous standards of apiary hygiene,
which I am afraid are much more demanding than the casual approach which most of us have been used to during our beekeeping years.

In carrying out 2 and 3 above, there is excellent guidance provided by Gavin Ramsay on the SBA's web page, with clear pictures of what to look for in brood combs, and with
a list of good things to do to avoid spreading infection between apiaries, and between stocks in any one apiary.  The Foul Brood leaflet published by the Central Science Laboratory
and available on line is also well worth consulting.

Magnus Peterson