@article{2011,
  keywords = {Paenibacillus larvae, clinical diagnosis, laboratory diagnosis},
  author = {A Fünfhaus and J Göbel and J Ebeling and H Knispel and E Genersch},
  title = {Questions, problems, and solutions in the diagnosis of American Foulbrood – a German perspective},
  abstract = {American Foulbrood (AFB) is a worldwide distributed, fatal disease of honey bee (Apis mellifera)  larvae. The causative agent is the Gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus  larvae. The death of the bee brood can result in colony collapse. AFB is a notifiable  epizootic in most countries and, hence, of relevance for veterinary medicine. Diagnosis of  an AFB outbreak is based on the detection of the characteristic clinical AFB symptoms upon  visual inspection of a colony’s brood combs and subsequent laboratory confirmation of  the tentative diagnosis via identification of P. larvae in sample material of the affected hive.  Detection of P. larvae spores in honey, adult bees, wax, pollen, and winter debris justifies the  suspicion of an AFB outbreak which must be notified to the authorities and subsequently  confirmed or ruled out via an official visual inspection of the respective colony. Presence of  spores in the absence of detectable clinical disease symptoms is indicative of an infected  but not yet diseased colony which can be sanitized with appropriate beekeeping methods  to prevent an AFB outbreak. Therefore, AFB monitoring programs based on analyzing e.g.,  brood comb honey from randomly selected colonies for the presence of P. larvae spores are  in place in many regions and aim at identifying infected colonies at an early stage. However,  in the course of such programs not only (i) infected but not yet diseased colonies but also (ii)  diseased but thus far overlooked colonies can be identified. Appropriate measures can then  be taken to decrease or prevent further spreading of the disease.},
  year = {2018},
  journal = {Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift},
  volume = {131},
  month = {12/2018},
  publisher = {Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG},
  address = {Hannover},
  issn = {0005-9366},
  doi = {10.2376/0005-9366-18023},
  language = {English},
}