Honey bee vet resources

More useful information and resources on honey bee medicine

General Information

• The Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium
• USDA- National Veterinary Accreditation program module 30: The role of veterinarians in honey bee health
  • This USDA resource is based on the American Veterinary Medical Associations' Honey bees 101 for veterinarians.
• UC Davis' Honey bees and beekeeping for veterinarians course (RACE approved)

Honey bee diagnostics and management

• Diagnostic tools for honey bee diseases online reference
• The BeeMD - A diagnostic application for use in the field to identify honey bee health problems
• Honey Bee Health Coalition's Varroa management guide
• PennState Extension's A field guide to honey bees and their maladies
• PennState Extension's Quick reference guide
• University of Arkansas' Guide to honey bee health

Antibiotics and VFDs

• Fillable VFD form for honey bees
• Blue bird labels
• FDA tolerance levels for antibiotics in honey
• Honey bee medicine for veterinarians and guidance for avoiding violative chemical residues in honey
• Minor use/Minor species
• University of Florida's Veterinarians' guide to honey bee antibiotics: Webinar
• VFD-specific resources:
  • Compliance policy guide on medicated feed for minor species
  • MDARD’s VFD website
  • MDARD’s generic fillable VFD order
  • Maryland Department of Agriculture's VFD videos (The first 12 minutes of this video are done by Dr. Michael Murphy of the FDA and describe the different antibiotics that are available. The rest is on the identification of American Foul Brood and honey bee biology.)
  • Oklahoma State's Guide to the Veterinary Feed Directive.
  • Read the ruling on Veterinary Feed Directive in the Federal Register (FDA-2010-N-0155)

FAQ pages

• Bee Culture FAQs - Do I need a vet?
• Blog post of FAQs from the University of Florida
• The FDA issued a Q&A document for frequent questions: FDA - Using medically important antimicrobials in bees - Questions and Answers
• FDA CVM GFI#120 - Q&A on VFD regulation Guidance for the industry (#120) - Small entity compliance guide Veterinary Feed Directive regulation Questions and Answers
• MDARD's Top 10 questions on the VFD

Resource for Canadian veterinarians (also on the CVMA website) 

• Veterinary oversight of antimicrobial use – A Pan-Canadian framework for professional standards for veterinarians called “Sub-section: Providing veterinary oversight of antimicrobial treatment of agricultural bee populations.”