The beekeeping industry to date, he said, have battled the threat of American foulbrood disease largely through monitoring, inspections, education and some preventative controls like antibiotics. But the spores remain a continual threat through their longevity, he added.

Merrill describes the disease as a fatal infection that attacks bees in their larval stage.

"It's what we call a brood disease," Merrill said.

"It's the anthrax for the honeybee," he said, referring to a deadly illness also spread by reproductive spores, in this case crossing the species barrier to humans from other animals.

It's those ingested Paenibacillus larvae spores that produce the bacterium fatal to bees through a deadly toxin it produces. Further, those spores can last in the environment up to 40 years. Making matters worse, once the spores are in infected hives, they can be picked up by "robber bees" from other hives who are stealing honey they're unaware is "laced with spores."

The new drug is a significant advance in the war on foulbrood disease by countering the toxin.

"It works great against the toxin in our lab," Merrill said. But that good news presents another quandary: whether that protection extends beyond the sterile confines of a research facility. That's why the next step is testing it under real-world conditions, working next May with German scientists near Berlin in field studies.

To Merrill, the plight of bees can't be underplayed. They are, he said, vital pollinators whose global populations are in decline.

'It's concerning."

vkirsch@guelphmercury.com