RED DEER COUNTY – Although a commercial beekeeping operation east of Innisfail does not see immediate urgency in ordering doses of a new U.S.-made vaccine to protect nature’s honey-makers from bacterial disease American foulbrood, a co-owner of the family-run business nevertheless welcomes the development.
“It’s always good, as an industry, to have another tool in the toolbox to try and control some of the challenges that we face,” said Kevin Nixon, of Nixon Honey Farm, a large commercial-scale beekeeping operation with about 10,000 hives.
“American foulbrood is a really infectious bacteria and it does definitely cause high risk to beekeepers,” Nixon told the Albertan.
Yet despite the potential problems posed by the bacterial disease, he added American foulbrood has for many years not been among the priority concerns faced not only by their operation, but also throughout the province as a whole.
“Generally speaking, in Alberta, I don’t think we have a huge problem with American foulbrood,” he said.
“There has been cases of it in the past where there have been significant outbreaks. But in recent years, it seems that things are mostly under control, at least within commercial beekeepers.”
The new vaccine was developed to immunize the honey-making pollinators against the bacterial disease, which can in extreme situations cause the complete collapse of entire colonies and by extension devastate producers of all sizes and spell financial ruin.
And since the bacteria’s spores are extremely durable and for decades can reportedly survive on equipment, wax as well as old hive frames, the disease can unexpectedly resurface. It only impacts developing honey bee larvae and does not affect adult bees.
The vaccine is transferred to the larval bees through a queen, which is fed the vaccine in a syrup. The treatment reduces the need for antibiotics while also helping to avoid the incineration of infected hives along with all the bees.
Made in the U.S., the vaccine was expected to be under distribution to Canadian commercial operators in the new year.
More commonly associated with immunizing against viruses, vaccines against extracellular bacteria have previously been successfully developed and remain in use today.
“We rarely see it anymore”
However, while Nixon has no doubts there are other producers in Canada who will benefit from the new vaccine in parts of the country where American foulbrood presents more of a threat to bees, he did not anticipate ordering any doses in the immediate future.
“We have no plans to use it right now,” he said.
Although American foulbrood “can be tricky to diagnose” as well as “very costly” if an operator isn’t aware of what it is or what to look for – along with the potential to stubbornly linger behind for long periods of time only to resurface later – Nixon said the bacterial infection has not presented itself very much at their operation in recent years.
“We rarely see it anymore,” he said, adding their last significant outbreak was about 15 to 20 years ago.
“And in the past 10 years, it’s only been like one or two hives per year kind of thing,” he said.
In those situations, the affected hive is isolated and removed, the bees inside all quarantined and taken off-site to be incinerated.
“We close the entrance so the bees cannot fly out of it, and we pick it up and we bring it home and we burn it – the entire hive; the lid, the bottom board, the boxes, the frames, the bees. Everything,” he said.
While there are antibiotics available against American foulbrood that they’ve used in the past, the bacteria itself seems to have developed a resistance to some of those treatments, he said.
Burning diseased hives best bet
“But really, the antibiotics are just masking it and it never really gets rid of it,” he said, adding the most certain way to be rid of the bacteria is to burn diseased hives.
“It’s something that we always keep an eye for in our operation, and then any time we do come across it, we take the measures that we just get rid of the hive. We feel that’s kind of the best solution,” he said, adding they’ve not had to resort to such drastic actions for a while.
“I don’t think we’ve burned a hive now in three years,” he said, adding that method is ultimately what’s recommended by authorities.
“The province has apiary inspectors for honeybees and if they come across an outbreak, as a provincial regulator, they do have the authority to order a burn as a cleanup,” he said.
“You never like to see that. But, you know, in our operation when we did see it in an outbreak situation, it took a few years to really get control of it.”
While the antibiotics already available at the time would get “us through from year to year” the treatment seemed only to serve as a crutch to help hobble along for another season while never actually fully getting rid of the disease, he said.
“And so taking the steps to actually burn it and get rid of it was probably the best decision that we made for us in our operation,” he said. “It’s costly. But in the long run, I think it was probably the best thing to do.”
So, “until we see that we are in a higher-risk situation (for American foulbrood), I don’t think we would be using it,” he said about the new vaccine.
“But I believe there are other regions in Canada where American foulbrood is maybe a bit of a higher risk. And so I’m sure there will be some benefit to having another option to people.”
Varroa mites main concern
From his perspective, the far greater cause for concern, he added, is not bacterial in nature, but rather parasitic.
“Today, and the last couple of years, American foulbrood really has not been the biggest challenge for beekeepers. Our biggest challenge still remains the varroa mite,” he said.
“It’s a small mite that lives on the bee, and it has developed resistance to our most common treatments,” he said, adding options are becoming increasingly scarce.
“We don’t have any really good alternatives, and that is affecting the industry on very large scale – like across Canada – and leading to significant losses. So, that really is our biggest challenge right now.”
Despite using the best available methods to mitigate the mite population, “You never really get rid of them. We’re just managing the population and trying to keep it under a threshold.”
Once varroa mites have established a population within a hive, the parasites also transmit around half a dozen different types of viruses, he said.
“And the viruses are really, really hard on the bees,” he said.
With temperatures finally plunging into a range more reminiscent of wintertime conditions recently, that adds another level of stress the bees must endure. Almost two years ago in the spring of 2022, producers including Nixon Honey Farm were hit hard by substantial winter die-offs following extreme cold.
“At this time of the year, we’re always a little anxious,” he said.
“With it being as warm as it has, I guess up until now … we’re just wondering if it’s going to have an overall positive effect or overall negative effect on the bees or not – there’s pros and cons to warmer weather,” he said.
“The bees themselves are pretty hardy; they can take cold temperatures.”
The problem arises, he elaborated, when the insects are already afflicted by other ailments, whether bacterial or parasitic.
“If the bees are suffering from viruses or something else and their immune systems are already low, then they could succumb to cooler temperatures quicker,” he said.
“But overall, the bees themselves – if they’re healthy – they’ll be okay from cold temperatures,” he said.
“These mites are really causing a problem. We’ve seen losses in the spring the last couple of years – and high losses – but overall, they’re mostly directly related to varroa.”
