Bee Med

One of the most fascinating aspects of this profession is the range of creatures veterinarians treat. Personally I have cared for animals from as small as a hummingbird to as large as a bull moose, although I will confess that both were while I was still in vet school. In my own pet practice the range is somewhat more restricted, running from mice to mastiffs. But my colleagues out there will attend to the full spectrum, from bees to whales. Whales, ok, you can probably picture that. Sort of. But bees? Surely I must be exaggerating or joking. I am not.

I am aware of at least three conferences this year that featured sessions on honey bee medicine. The Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium now has 345 American veterinarians listed in its database and there is also a British Bee Veterinary Association with a cool website (britishbeevets.com), as well as a Veterinary Invertebrate Society. The latter appears to be more focused on spiders and lobsters, but it is certainly interested in anything which creepeth or crawleth or buzzeth.

Ok, you can get the obvious jokes out of the way now. You must have a very tiny xray machine! It must be hard to give it a pill without getting stung! How do you take its temperature?! Har har. Nope, nope and nope. Bee medicine is like the medicine of many other food producing animals and is directed towards diagnosis and treatment of large groups at once rather than individuals. Dead bees are tested and then, if appropriate, something is prescribed for the entire swarm.

What has changed recently and made this something more than an obscure reference buried deep in the veterinary literature is a change in the laws governing antibiotics. Since 2017 in the US, and as of the end of this year in Canada, the regulatory authorities will require a veterinary prescription for most antibiotic use in bees. And a veterinary prescription requires a valid "veterinary - client - patient" relationship. Yes, the vet will have to have a relationship with the bee (bees). He or she will have to see them and make a diagnosis before anything is prescribed. This is because in the past bee keepers were able to buy the antibiotics over the counter and misuse, largely due to lack of knowledge and training rather than actual negligence, has led to antibiotic resistance and residues appearing in the honey.

So now vets will have to learn about "varroa mites" and "acarine mites" and "nosema fungus" and "small hive beetles" and "Israeli acute paralysis virus" and "black queen cell virus" and the wonderfully medieval sounding "chalkbrood" and "foulbrood", among many other bee ailments. Foulbrood, a highly infectious bacterial disease killing bee larvae, now affects about 25% of hives in Canada and is the main reason for antibiotic use. With correct diagnosis and careful prescription of appropriate antibiotics at the appropriate doses and times this can be managed better than it has in the past. Veterinarians to the rescue! Other veterinarians though - I'll stick to my mice and my mastiffs, and most of what's in-between.