Deadly bee disease returns to Jersey

Deadly bee disease returns to Jersey

Following a confirmed case of American foulbrood in an apiary in St Brelade last week, Natural Environment has contacted all registered beekeepers asking them to inspect their colonies as officers try to control and prevent the outbreak from spreading.

Beekeeper and JEP nature columnist Bob Tompkins said: ‘The return of American foulbrood was only confirmed last week and I have not heard of any further reports of it.

‘Once it starts it spreads at speed through a colony until the colony collapses so the only recourse is that all the bees have to be destroyed and the [hive] boxes and equipment all have to be chemically treated. It has come right out of the blue and we have not got to the bottom of what the source of this case could be.

‘As American foulbrood is categorised as a notifiable disease, the onus is on beekeepers to notify the department of the location of their hives and any suspicions that they could be infected.

‘They also have to notify any people who they may have supplied with bees and who are not members of the Jersey Beekeepers Association or registered as beekeepers with the department.’

In its letter to beekeepers, Natural Environment also reminds them that all beehive-owners must register with the department and keep their records up to date.

American foulbrood is a fatal disease caused by a spore forming bacterium that first attacks bee grubs. Adult bees are not affected but as they can spread spores within and between infected and clean hives, the only way to contain an outbreak is to destroy the infected colony.

American foulbrood was identified in 1906 as a specific form of the disease. The designation does not refer to the geographical source but to the country where it was first investigated scientifically.

It first broke out in Jersey in 2010 and there have been no reported cases for four years. Mr Tompkins says the bacterium can lay dormant for up to 50 years and outbreaks can result for a number of reasons.

He said: ‘It could have come from an old piece of equipment or from a contaminated box, or even someone leaving out a honey jar for the rubbish that came from another part of the world that could have carried the bacterium spore.’

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