Notifiable Bee Diseases
Lexikon
Since March 11, 2026, the German Animal Disease Notification Ordinance (Tierseuchenmeldeverordnung) has governed which diseases must be reported to the responsible authority.
Since March 11, 2026, the German Animal Disease Notification Ordinance (Tierseuchenmeldeverordnung) has governed which diseases must be reported to the responsible authority. It has replaced the former distinction between notifiable animal diseases subject to compulsory reporting and reportable animal diseases. Reporting is now uniform under this ordinance, with the diseases listed in two annexes with differing degrees of official consequence.
Annex 1 lists, for the honey bee, American foulbrood, infestation with the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida), and infestation with Tropilaelaps mites. This annex triggers the full set of measures under the Animal Health Act (Tiergesundheitsgesetz), namely isolation, surveillance and official veterinary examination. Annex 2 lists infestation with varroa mites, that is, varroosis. It, too, must be reported, but with markedly more limited consequences.
The notification requirement falls on the beekeeper personally and applies already on reasonable suspicion, not only on confirmed diagnosis. Veterinarians, testing facilities and laboratories also report. For varroosis, the notification requirement has little practical significance, because infestation is assumed to be widespread, and the Bee Disease Ordinance instead prescribes annual treatment of all colonies at a site.
What must happen after the report continues to be set out in the Bee Disease Ordinance, which contains its own sections for American foulbrood, the mite disease, varroosis, the small hive beetle and Tropilaelaps. European foulbrood is not notifiable in Germany, but it is in Switzerland. Such differences are the reason that, in the event of suspicion, the rules of one's own country always apply.
Quellen (5)
- Tierseuchenmeldeverordnung, Inhaltsübersicht
- Tierseuchenmeldeverordnung, Anlage 1 mit Amerikanischer Faulbrut, Aethina tumida und Tropilaelaps
- Tierseuchenmeldeverordnung, Anlage 2 mit Befall mit Varroa spp.
- Bienenseuchen-Verordnung, Inhaltsübersicht
- LLH Bieneninstitut Kirchhain: Bienenkrankheiten, Bienenschädlinge und Vergiftungen