All hobby and commercial beekeepers in Central must be alert to the signs of an American foulbrood disease (AFB) hive infection according to a local expert.

The warning comes following recent reports of the bacterial disease affecting hives in other parts of New Zealand, leaving affected beekeepers out of pocket and fighting for compensation.

Tiaki Bees director and qualified apiculturist Barna Szcos said the closest place to do a refresher “AFB recognition course” was Cromwell Polytechnic.

He said it was important to do a health check for each hive, every time it was looked at.

“Things to look out for are the strength of the hive. A hive can be weak for multiple reasons, but far the worst reason is due to AFB infection. Look for patchy brood, capped cells that are sunken, perforated.

“On more advanced cases dead larvae in a cell that is caramel coloured and when a ropiness test is performed by thrusting a matchstick into the cell, and if semi-fluid larval remains can be drawn out in a thread, then this might mean that the hive is infected with AFB.”

Locally Barna, who looks after rental hives across Central Lakes, said he has only ever had one infected site.

“For now it looks like we managed to eliminate the disease from that apiary and stopped the spread into other hives.”

Barna said destroying hives by fire is a common instance especially for big operations with thousands of hives.

“It is a hard and harsh thing to do on multiple levels, but also the right thing to do in order to try to eliminate the disease from New Zealand hives and avoid the use of antibiotics.”

AFB has hit the national headlines recently with thousands of Springbank Honey hives ordered to be destroyed by fire in North Canterbury. Fire is used to ensure all the spores of AFB are eliminated.

Springbank Honey called the destruction “heartbreaking” in a social media post. PHOTO: Facebook

Back in March dozens of hives reported missing from a farm in Mt Pisa were officially confiscated by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

The hives had not been registered and the owners had been given a warning in September last year about the state of them.

Because they were in poor condition, they were at risk of affecting other registered beehives and a formal confiscation was made in early March to destroy them.

Read more: Hive heist hoax at Mt Pisa farm

If a hobbyist beekeeper has completed the course to recognise the disease, but still needs advice they should seek out a more experienced beekeeper to carry out regular hive health checks.

American Foulbrood disease is the most serious honeybee disease in New Zealand and has a major impact on bee populations.

All beekeepers must be registered under the American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan.

More information from MPI on this AFB factsheet.

Read more: A day in the life of a Central beekeeper