I found a basic disconnect, and can show all 
parties that there was apparently a mere 
semantic difference here, which I'd like to
resolve with a definition of the term 
"dead-out comb":

"Dead-Out Comb" - The drawn wax in a frame, AND 
ITS CONTENTS as found in a dead-out colony.

So, yet again, "Do combs in CCD dead-outs contain 
Nosema ceranae spores?"

We can say "yes", for several different compelling
reasons:

1) The short-term advantage resulting from disinfecting
   dead-out combs with EITHER irradiation or acetic acid 
   fumigation, showed that was what being killed was 
   Nosema, rather than viruses.  (Refer to the MAAREC 
   press releases and the talks I cited by Dennis 
   vanEngelsdorp about the attempts to sterilize 
   dead-out combs.)  

2) The detection of Nosema ceranae spores even in pollen 
   collected in pollen traps gives us a big hint as 
   to how combs become infected/infested/contaminated,
   and also give the spores a "media" to live in.
   (See the two papers cited below)

3) Symptoms of Nosema apis are well-understood, and
   include diarrhea-like symptoms.  Bees with BOTH
   Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae in their midguts 
   at the same time (the best-correlating pathogens
   to CCD symptoms ever found), are going to defecate,
   resulting in spores of BOTH Nosemas lying around
   on comb (not merely in/on pollen cells), despite
   the contention that Nosema ceranae does not itself
   have diarrhea-like symptoms.  It doesn't, but it
   doesn't matter.  Bees will commonly have both,
   as this is what is consistently found in CCD hives.


Details Below
=============
  
These two papers by Higes (Spain) will explain how pollen
is a known vector for the spread of Nosema ceranae:

http://tinyurl.com/9f2kn3
or
http://cals.arizona.edu/ento/courses/ento446_546/readings/Higes_2008.pdf


http://tinyurl.com/8v97wh
or
http://www.honeybee.org.au/pdf/Nosema_Ceranae_Environmental_Microbiology_200
8.pdf


So, as this pollen is stored in combs, could the pollen alone 
be the sole mechanism for Nosema to be spread?  Yes.

Now, are the combs containing this pollen "contaminated"?  
I certainly would say so.

But Peter (and later, Randy) would likely say that 
contaminated POLLEN does not make for "contaminated 
comb", in that the wax itself is perhaps free of 
Nosema spores.  

I'll offer my point (3) above as a mechanism by which the
wax comb itself can become infected/infested with Nosema
ceranae spores even in areas free of any pollen. 

But even if the pollen is the only vector, the disconnect is
mere semantics - the pollen can't be removed from all the 
cells in all the combs of a dead-out, so, from a practical 
standpoint, the whole comb must be treated, either with acetic 
or irradiation, and lacking such treatment, the comb is still
"contaminated".

To see that what correlates best to CCD is not one, but BOTH 
types of Nosema at the same time, see the supplements to the 
Sept 2007 "Science" paper for the data:
http://bee-quick.com/reprints/dedetails.pdf


Joe said:

> "Facts lacking, resorts to rhetoric attacking"  

Which sounds just like a rhetorical attack in itself, 
as Joe offered no facts, yet had pointed comments 
about the people participating in the discussion.

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