Paenibacillus larvae – American foulbrood disease detection kits

P. larvae is a genus of Gram-positive, facultative anaerobic, endospore-forming rod-shaped bacterium that causes American foulbrood (AFB), a destructive disease of honey bee colonies. is a highly contagious, cosmopolitan disease affecting the larval and pupal stages of honeybees. Infected individuals turn brown and then black, and the resultant mass becomes a hard scale of material deposited on the side of the cell. AFB is one of the few bee diseases capable of killing a colony, and it presents unique problems for prevention and control because the spores can remain viable for long periods and survive under adverse environmental conditions.