Strathspey bees facing new blight
An alert has gone up among the strath’s beekeepers over a new killer disease threatening their honey bee hives in the Nethy Bridge and Aviemore areas.
Jennifer Lobban of the Spey Beekeepers Association told the Strathy: “We have organised bee inspector Claire Gill, from the Scottish Government, to give us a talk on bee diseases with European FoulBrood now detected in our area.
“It is a notifiable disease with no cure.”
EFB is a brood disease caused by a bacterium and was first detected in Australia in the late 1970s and has since then spread around the world.
Larvae of all ages are susceptible to infection and become infected after ingesting food contaminated with the bacteria.
The prescribed action is euthanasia and burning of the hives.
The association’s own hive was being inspected today.
A meeting is set for this Tuesday, September 5, opening at 6.30pm for 7pm start, in St John’s Church Hall, Rothiemurchus, Aviemore.
