European foulbrood (EFB) is an infectious disease of honey bees caused by the bacterium
Melissococcus plutonius. A method for DNA isolation and conventional PCR diagnosis was developed using hive debris, which was non-invasively collected on paper sheets placed on the bottom
boards of hives. Field trials utilized 23 honey bee colonies with clinically positive symptoms and
21 colonies without symptoms. Bayes statistics were applied to calculate the comparable parameters
for EFB diagnostics when using honey, hive debris, or samples of adult bees. The reliability of the
conventional PCR was 100% at 6.7 × 103 Colony Forming Unit of M. plutonius in 1 g of debris. The
sensitivity of the method for the sampled honey, hive debris, and adult bees was 0.867, 0.714, and
1.000, respectively. The specificity for the tested matrices was 0.842, 0.800, and 0.833. The predictive
values for the positive tests from selected populations with 52% prevalence were 0.813, 0.833, and
0.842, and the real accuracies were 0.853, 0.750, and 0.912, for the honey, hive debris, and adult bees,
respectively. It was concluded that hive debris can effectively be utilized to non-invasively monitor
EFB in honey bee colonies.