Honeybees harbor antibiotic-resistance genes  CONTACT:  Jim
Sliwa   WASHINGTON, DC – October 30, 2012 – Bacteria in the guts
of honeybees are highly resistant to the antibiotic
tetracycline, probably as a result of decades of preventive
antibiotic use in domesticated hives. Researchers from Yale
University identified eight different tetracycline resistance
genes among U.S. honeybees that were exposed to the antibiotic,
but the genes were largely absent in bees from countries where
such antibiotic use is banned. The study appears on October 30
in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society
for Microbiology.   "It [resistance] seems to be everywhere in
the U.S.," says Nancy Moran of Yale University, a senior author
on the study. "There's a pattern here, where the U.S. has these
genes and the others don't."   Honeybees the world over are
susceptible to the bacterial disease called "foulbrood", which
can wipe out a hive faster than beekeepers can react to the
infection. In the U.S., beekeepers h