RESEARCH REVIEWED

摘要

"... prophylactic and wholesale treatment of non-symptomatic honey bee populations with antibiotics... will lead to increased resistance of the disease-causing organism ofAFB to antibiotics." American fbulbrood (AFB) is certainly the most well knowndisease of honey bees in the United States and the scourge that led to the establishment of apiary inspection programs within many individual states. The causative agent of this disease is a bacterium known scientifically as Paenibacillus larvae larvae.The problem with AFB is that it is highly contagious, being readily spread by spores that are formed by the infective agent. In the past, AFB in the U.S. was often controlled "prophylactically" by the application of the antibiotic oxytetracycline and, thus, remained a "minor" problem in the minds of many beekeep-ers. However, over time, some strains of AFB developed resistance to oxytetracycline and the disease has again become prominent as a newsworthy foe.