Hello Barry & All,
 Barry asks:
 Does not this paper identify N. ceranae as the cause of CCD, and
 provide the control?

 The problem as I see it Barry comes from those researching  CCD. When many
 of us point to nosema ceranae as perhaps the main problem behind CCD we are
 met with a described list of symptoms( which in reality most commercial
 beekeepers have never seen or see few hives with those *exact* symptoms.)
 Yet many have seen the dead hives with symptoms all over the spectrum.

 Finally researchers admit that what they call CCD symptoms do vary. What
 they label CCD on the East coast can (and usually does) have symptoms which
 do not match those on the west coast.

 At first commercial beeks accepted their diagnosis but we all talk (usually
 by cell phones) and we found that what the CCD team was calling CCD in the
 north east did not match what they were calling CCD in Florida which did 
not
 match what they were calling CCD in California. Very confusing!

 In conference calls commercial beeks came to the only conclusion they could
 based on the expert beeks opinions among them. Those conclusions were:

 1. Nosema ceranae is a real threat and needs and all out plan to control. 
To
 be effective all beeks coming in contact with each other need to control
 nosema C.

 1a. testing will be done by a few to find better ways to control and also
 cheaper ways. Test new methods to control Nosema C. Thanks for Randy O. for
 his research and for a couple unnamed others.

 The above has been very effective and completed without help from the
 USDA-ARS & the CCD team.

 2. switch from HFCS to sucrose.
 The problems with HFCS were exposed by Dr. Gregory  of the Weslaco Bee Lab
 (article ABJ April 2007 pg.323) at both national conventions.

  I received an
 email last month from the USDA-ARS (Kevin Hackett) saying
 that the Tucson Bee lab would soon be reporting interesting findings from
 the labs HFCS research.

So far the USDA-ARS has not been able to explain why bees lived half as long 
when fed HFCS instead of sucrose.  For details of the above research see ABJ 
April 2007 pg. 323 article by Bob Harrison. The article was approved by the 
heads of the USDA-ARS by reading before publication. For those thinking of 
writing an article on a bee lab you need to get approval first and then get 
final approval of the text to be submitted.

 2a. despite many of us being skeptical a switch from feeding HFCS (after
 decades of successful use) to sucrose would produce better bees the list is
 long with beeks which all agree the switch provided better bees.

 3. Commercial beekeepers decided to follow the lead of California 
beekeepers
 like Pat Heitkam and start looking at our pollen subs and share formulas.
 The bee industry owes Pat ( past ABF president) a debt of gratitude for
 funding and pushing the USDA-ARS for many years (four or five I think) to
 come up with a better pollen substitute plus better research into bee
 nutrition.

 Those commercial beeks which joined those in the above loop saw an 
immediate
 change in our bees. Again Pat had been feeding a brewers yeast formula (
 which he sells) which I went to and highly recommend. To our surprise Pat
 had switched to sucrose a few years before (at additional cost ) and saw an
 improvement in his bees over feeding HFCS.

 Most beeks in the loop began looking for N. ceranae in their bees and
 treating. Some as a preventative.
 Dr. Eric Mussen was enlisted to help find better ways to control the new
 (now old) nosema and his help provided valuable input!

 The biggest problem I found in fighting N. ceranae was the fact that some
 hives could handle N. ceranae more than others. Both Randy O. and myself
 suspected that the N. ceranae had been in the U.S. for a very long time and
 some bees had adjusted to high spore loads. This was confirmed this spring
 and explains much.

 It is my opinion Barry that commercial beeks must keep nosema ceranae
 infestations low. Possibly need to treat at regular intervals. This
 statement will cause and outcry on a mainly hobby list but until better
 research comes along may be the only way to keep profitability up. When you
 keep bees for a living you must keep healthy bees.

 In closing let me say that what beekeepers need to hear at bee meetings all
 over the country is not from those describing CCD but rather from beeks
 which have got the best bees in years by controlling the above issues. Of
 course when your hives are boiling with bees you have little time for
 meetings.


 Sincerely,
 Bob Harrison

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