American foulbrood is a worldwide disease of honey bee larvae. It is caused by Paenibacillus larvae, a gram-positive bacterium that produces millions of resistant spores in each infected larva. The spores then enter the digestive tract of the larvae in the open brood stage, where they germinate, multiply, destroy the cells of the stomach lining and enter the haemolymph and other body tissues.
Diagnosis of the pathogen is based on a specific bacteriological culture followed by identification by MALDI-TOF or direct molecular genetic detection.
