The recent study by Rick Fell lab is excellent study from north west USA. However in my surveillance and monitory program we did in Laberta for years. Nosema is consisted a serious disease and we lost a lot of colonies because of it. I have seen operations lost 75% of the bees for nosema with levels as high as several
Millions spores. I don't forget I went inside a. Winter facility with 75% deD colonies. It smelled like a rotten dead animal in the room. Testing bees for nosema, the levels were sky rocketing.

Keep in mind bees don't fly out of the hives during 4-5 months in winter. We monitored nosema through winter and the levels builds up from January onward. If we have cold long winter follows up with cold spring this where percentage of bee losses will double even triple.

In areas where bees get a chance to dedicate during winter, most likely nosema might not be as serious disease.

Climate can be a major factor in determining nosema impacts on bee health. You may notice in CAPA winter losses survey that 100% of Alberta beekeepers  treat nosema now on spring and a good portion treat again in the fall.
We have started tackling this issue in our research to define thresholds and treatment time that is good for our climate.

Medhat Nasr

Edmonton Alberta
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