ND Honey Bee Stats

I have received summary data from a Plant Protection Specialist/State Apiary Inspector with the North Dakota Department of Agriculture. A particular set of data that was received was the total amounts of North Dakota apiaries, the amount of them that had been inspected, and the amount of apiaries that were diagnosed with American Foulbrood (AFB) disease for each year since 1979. AFB is caused by the bacterium P. larvae. The data that was received was only summary data, with a single number for cases that year, so statistical analyses was limited. Below is the percent of total registered apiaries in North Dakota that were diagnosed with AFB since 1979:

Raw Data:

Please note, the above graph illustrates the number of ND apiaries that were diagnosed with AFB over the TOTAL number of ND apiaries. This does not take into account how many of the total apiaries that were actually inspected- that data is further below. However, some data from specific years were not complete. There were five years when the total number of apiaries that were inspected was not recorded, and one year when the amount of inspected apiaries diagnosed with AFB was also not recorded. The above graph still includes these years, however they are listed as 0% as values were missing. The specific years and what was not recorded is listed below:

Missing data
Tot apiaries			Apiaries w/ AFB
1979			1992
1982
1983
1984
1985

Raw Data:

Missing data
Tot inspected apiaries			Apiaries w/ AFB
1992			1992

The above data is the amount of apiaries diagnosed with AFB over the amount of ND apiaries inspected. This data provides a more accurate representation of the prevalence of AFB in ND over the years. AFB is a reportable disease, and when it is the hive(s) in the apiary are typically destroyed at the apiarists expense. It is my understanding that the ND state apiary inspectors only visit an apiary if it has been requested, however I am not completely familiar with regulation of apiaries in the state. Overall, it appears that AFB is not a hugely pervasive disease in North Dakota based on the amount that has been diagnosed from those apiaries inspected each year. I can use this percentage data to extrapolate the actual percent of AFB in the entire state of ND, assuming the above data is an accurate representation of the average.

Below is the total amount of registered ND Apiaries. It is surprising to see that the amount actually increased since 1979. It appears that ND is at an all time high for registered apiaries.

//EWW