Prevention and control of mixed infections of bee spore disease and chronic spirostomycosis

Recently, mixed infections of bee spore disease and chronic spirochetes have occurred from time to time and are on the rise, causing serious economic losses to beekeepers. The disease is more harmful to the bee farm, improperly handled, often causing cross-infection, and the mortality rate can reach 15%-90%.

1 Pathogen

Spiroplasma is a spiral-shaped, motile, cell wall-free prokaryote, the diameter of the body is 0.17 nm, the length changes with different growth periods, can pass through the 0.25 nm pore size membrane, the most suitable growth temperature is 32 °C, the optimal growth pH is 7.5, under the optimal growth conditions 48 h to reach the growth peak, 60 h into the decline period. Spore disease is caused by microsporidium bee, which parasitizes within the epithelial cells of the bee's midgut, using bee body fluids as substances for nutrient development and reproduction. Sporozoite spores are highly resistant to the outside environment, and can survive for 2 years in bee feces, 10 min in warm water at 58 °C, and 10 min in 1% of the stony carbonate solution.

2 Symptoms

Mixed infection mainly endangers adult bees, and diseased bees crawl out of the nest door and crawl on the top of the hive and the ground around the hive, slow to move and unable to fly. Three or five piles are gathered in the lid, mound or grass, some dead bees have their wings outstretched, the snout is outstretched, the appearance of the crawling bees is unchanged, the hind feet are paralyzed, and some diseased bees have brownish yellow and slightly transparent dorsal plates of the first and second abdominal segments.

3 Diagnosis

3.1 Spore infection The intestines of diseased bees vary, some of the midgut is swollen white, some of the hind intestine has yellow-white pollen, the middle intestine of the sick bee is sliced into tissues, microscopic observation, the perimeter of the diseased bee is lost, and the epithelial cells are filled with a large number of newborn sporangia spores, which can be diagnosed as sporangia.

3.2 Spironas infection Take the sick bee, disinfect the surface with 1% sodium hypochlorite, rinse it twice with sterile water, add a small amount of sterile water to grind in the mortar, centrifuge for 5 minutes at 1000 r/min, take 1 drop of supernatant on the slide, add a coverslip, place it under a dark field microscope 1 500 times for observation, there are a large number of spiral-shaped, moving bacteria, can be determined as spiroplasmosis. After mixed infection, the condition is severe, and a large number of dead bees can be seen around the hive, and the population rapidly weakens.

4 Triggers

4.1 Temperature In early spring, the temperature is low, the bees are closed in the hive for a long time, unable to fly and excrete or the swarm is insulation improperly, resulting in environmental pollution in the hive, prone to sporangiasis and spirosis.

4.2 Humidity In early spring, the temperature difference between day and night is large or rainy and wet, which makes the hive humidity large, causing bee colonies to diarrhea, and accelerating the mixed infection of spore disease and spirochetes.

4.3 Bee colony The bee colony is weak, the bee colony moves frequently, and the resistance of the bee colony is significantly reduced by the bee colony or the bee stealing, resulting in the occurrence of such diseases and spreading throughout the field.

4.4 Microorganisms Spring is the breeding season for many microorganisms (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.), which will bring a variety of diseases to the bee colony, thus inducing the disease.

4.5 Bee farm hygiene The bee farm does not pay attention to cleaning and hygiene, epidemic prevention and disinfection; the sick bees, dead bees, nest spleen are not treated in time, and the environmental pollution of the bee farm and the surrounding environment is artificially caused, which is very easy to cause mixed infection of the disease.

4.6 Feed In early spring, due to the hunger of the bee colony, it often causes the occurrence of various diseases, and when the honey source is lacking, the bees are also prone to picking manna honey, causing manna honey poisoning or feeding pollen containing pathogens, resulting in the occurrence of spore and spirochetes.

5 Prevention and control

5.1 There should be an adequate feed supply and the quality of the feed should be maintained, and it is forbidden to use moldy, spoiled or pathogenic feed, and not to use pollen or honey produced by the diseased group as feed. Before feeding, the feed is sterilized and sterilized.

5.2 To do a good job in the environmental hygiene of the bee farm, the bee carcass and debris in the box should be cleaned up, and the beehive, beehive, nest and spleen should be disinfected during the wintering period. Beehives and beehives can be brushed with 4% formalin aqueous solution. Beehives and wintering rooms are painted or sprayed with 10%-20% lime water, nest spleens are fumigated with 86% glacial acetic acid for 24 h (1.5 ml per spleen), and work clothes can be boiled and disinfected with 1%-2% aqueous sodium hydroxide solution.

5.3 Breed wintering bees of appropriate age and select queen bees with strong disease resistance. Autumn production of royal pulp should end early, control the queen bee spawning, and timely give reward feeding, cultivate a large number of age-appropriate wintering bees, so that a strong group of wintering, at least once a year to change the king, choose a strong disease resistance, no bee disease colony to cultivate the queen bee.

5.4 Avoid low temperature and humidity in spring, the bee farm should choose a leeward sunny, well-ventilated site, to avoid the external environment of humidity so that the humidity in the bee colony is too large, resulting in honey crystallization, feed deterioration, bee diarrhea and other symptoms. At the same time, it is also necessary to grasp the time of tightening the spleen and the progress of adding the spleen, expand the hive in a timely manner, it is not easy to tighten the spleen prematurely, and it is necessary to add the spleen in a timely manner according to the external temperature and the overall feeding capacity of the bee colony and the honey powder source conditions.

5.5 Drug prophylaxis treatment, can be used viramine 20 tablets, acetate 100 ml, chloramphenicol 100,000 IU, ground into a powder, added to 1000 g of sugar water, well stirred evenly, 250 ml of liquid per group, prevention should be carried out in the spring breeding. When the second spleen has not been capped, the treatment should be early detection of the disease, early medication, every 1 day of the drug, 3 days for a course of treatment, until the cure.