European Foulbrood

A bacterial disease of honey bee larvae (Melissococcus plutonius) that, unlike the more severe American foulbrood, kills larvae before their cells are capped, leaving them twisted and discolored within open brood cells, and that a colony can sometimes overcome on its own through hygienic behavior in a strong nectar flow. It occurs in honey bee populations worldwide and periodically causes serious colony losses in commercial beekeeping operations, particularly those under nutritional or migratory stress, and antibiotic treatment together with requeening from hygienic stock are the standard management responses.