Chalkbrood - Status Today and Hopes for Control' - Golden Rule Honey

PISTS, PREDATORS, AND DISEASES
According to Fyg (1961\, the organism probabll' errters the re.productive
organs through the sting chamber and vaginal orifice. It
produces in the oviducts and ovaries a melanosis or black coloration.
J'he poison sac ancl poison.gland of the queen are also affected
and contain large black srvellings. These sn'ellings exert
pressure on the oviduct, and egg laving ceases. Since infected
queens become sterile, Ctrry. (1951) recomnrended that tl-rey be
replaced, althougl'r such queens are superseded by a nerv queen
(Bailcy'1963).
Healthy r-luc.ens can tre infected bv vagirral inoculations in the
laboratory (Fyg,796q, and adult rvorkers and drones have been
infected n,ith cultures injected into the thorax (Fy'g 1936). However,
direct feeding of the pathogen to be.es has uot produce.d
infection. Unfortunatelv, nothing is kno'rvn about ihe incidence of
the disease (Bailey 7968).
The pathogen Frroduces lvhite., smooth, sl'riny colc,rnies on beerlvort
agar at 30' Celsius. These colonies never darken even in old
cultures (F1'g 196a). Fvg (i964) contends tl-rat this organism is not
idcntical rrith the org;.rnism Mclunscllrt nrors npis described by
Orosi-P6l (1936, 1,939).
Orcjsi-Pal (1936) found a livir-rg matecl queen that had ceascrl to
Iav eggs. The genital orifice was plugged rvith a brown substance
in n'hich the sting n'as embeddecl. This "anal rvacl" rvas lodged
soliclll'betn'een the last tr.vo abdominal segments aird the stirrger.
He cultivated spores from the 'rvad and or.aries of this queerr a'cl
also fourrd tl-re organisnr in hind guts of infected worker bee.s. T'he
n'rost strikir-rg sign of the disease in rvorker bees was an evagination
of the hiridgut. He gave the name of Melnnosella nrttrs npis to the
pathogenic agent and n'as able to cause mortality in worker bees
within 24 hours after feeding them pr-rre culturts of the organism.
Corrtarski (7937138) found a fungiform organism betrveen the
ovarioles of a queen suffering from ovarian atrophy. I{orvever, Fyg
(1964) examined 224 cases of ovarian atroplrl' of queens ancl clid
not encounter this condition.
Polte' and Neshatave'a (1969) stated that the agent Meranoseiln
urLlrs opis corresponds morpl-rologicallv and culturally to AurettltnsidiLtrtt
pullultris (Del3aly) Arnaud \: Pullulnrin Ttullularrs [DeBary]
Llerkl-rout). They' injccted 'r'orker bees in the thorax and abclome.n
rr'ith Arrrcirbttsitihrm Ttullulans fronr cultule collectiorrs and from
qucens nitir nrelanosis. Infection began in the regions injected;
and no pathological differences \\'ere observed i. strains from
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