Ætiology of European Foul Brood; a Disease of the Larval Honey-bee

Abstract

THE cause of European foul brood was originally thought to be Bacillus alvei ¹ or a mixture of B. alvei and Streptococcus apis ². The causative organism was later named and described by White³ as Bacillus pluton, a lanceolate Gram-positive bacterium. This organism is the first of several which have been found to appear in diseased larvæ. However, White and others failed to culture B. pluton in vitro and it was afterwards considered to be a dissociant form of Bacillus alvei ⁴, of Bacterium eurydice ⁵, or of both⁶. Others^7,8 have maintained that B. pluton is a separate organism. It has been pointed out that Streptococcus pluton would be a more suitable designation than Bacillus pluton both on morphological grounds and in the absence of evidence that it forms spores. For these reasons and those given below the organism will be referred to as Streptococcus pluton.