> As Peter posted the USDA claimed that in 2006 N.C. was first detected. Took two decades for the bee lab to find N.C. in the U.S. certainly an "egg on face issue" played down by the lab.

Actually, Nosema ceranae was not discovered until 1996 and was first found on A. mellifera in 2005, 9 years later. And, at the time, there was simply no reason to suppose that it would be on North American or European honey bees. 

When it was discovered in Spain, people began to look for it everywhere. This is hardly egg on anybody's face to not be looking for something that was considered highly unlikely to be there. 

However, in 2006, when there was a catastrophic collapse of honey bee colonies, researchers began to look more closely than they ever had before to see if something was there that hadn't been seen. And they found a lot of surprises. 

You know, it is so easy to sit back and criticize other people for what they didn't know or what they didn't do. Furthermore, does anybody here understand what is involved in distinguishing N. apis from N. ceranae? It's not like telling a Ford from a Chevy.

PLB

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