Nosema ceranae is a widespread fungal pathogen of honey bees. There is some debate as to the seriousness of the infection, which appears to manifest differently in different climates and geographic locations. The use of the fungal derived antibiotic fumagillin is widespread, although prohibited in some areas. There is a trade-off in the use of antibiotics, which is: the development of resistant pathogens. This problem has heightened the awareness that routine use of antibiotics on apparently healthy animals as a preventative or stimulant may lead to resistant strains and render the drugs useless. The following describes a case in humans, but the mechanism of resistance development is the same in bees, as we have seen in the case of antibiotic resistant brood disease.

> Opportunistic fungal infections are a global health threat. Widespread use of antifungal drugs in the immunocompromised population has been associated with the emergence of clinically significant drug resistance among patients who have been exposed to such antimycotics for prolonged periods. Understanding the processes that underlie the emergence of such resistance is vital for dealing with this critical issue.

> The budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, widely used in baking and ethanol production for industrial usage and human consumption, in general is non-pathogenic. Strain YJM789, however, was derived from a clinical S. cerevisiae isolate (YJM128) collected from the lung of an AIDS patient. The YJM789 strain has many phenotypes that are relevant to its pathogenicity, including high-temperature growth, pseudohyphae, and deadly virulence in mouse. 

 - Changes in Sensitivity to Antifungal Drugs by Mutations, http://www.plosone.org/


Peter Loring Borst
Ithaca  NY USA
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