The effects of *Nosema ceranae* on colony health still remain, IMHO, an
enigma, with strongly contradictory conclusions from researchers around the
world.

I'm fresh returned from Chile, where some advisors have made beekeepers
very fearful of *Nosema ceranae.  *Juanse was translating one of my
presentations to the audience (thank you very much), and I asked him as to
his opinion (since he and I have followed, and experimented with, *N
ceranae *for some time).  Neither he nor I bother to treat for it any more,
due both to our independent reviews of the literature, as well as our
practical experience.

But that experience does not necessarily extend to beekeeping in other
regions.

As it happens, I'm in the process of analyzing two different data sets
taken from two different trials using my hives.  Since I often find that
collapsing colonies in late winter are overwhelmed by *N ceranae* (with as
many as 8 or more bees out of 10 infected), I suspected that nosema spore
counts in fall would be a good predictor of colony decline over winter.
However, that was not the case in my analysis of the first study--there was
no correlation.

I hope to have the analysis of the second done soon, and will share on the
List for those who may be interested.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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