Williams said:

Chemotherapy using the fungicide fumagillin reduced N. ceranae spore intensity but had no effect on colony survival. Field studies that I and Guzmán-Novoa et al. (2010) performed in Canada suggested that N. ceranae did not significantly influence colony health.

These studies were done in eastern Canada. However in Western Canada where winter is too long and  Weather is unpredictable and  erratic in spring. Beekeepers rely on Fumagillin to treat nosema. A simple example is 2017. Spring was cold. Most colonies died in the month of April due to nosema. Many beekeepers counted spores and they were in millions per bee. Colony build up stopped. Taking sugar feed stopped for spring build up. Beekeepers had to use Fumagillin drench 3-4 times once every 4-5 days. Then nosema went down and survived colonies have started to rebuild and recover. Colonies were not treated mostly died. If nosema was not a factor, winter kill in 2017 would have been 10-15% in Alberta. However after April winter kill was up to 30% due to nosema. I would say Canada is too big of a country with very different geographical and weather conditions from coast  to coast  to  coast. These differences must be considered when we look at disease and treatment.

I always keep my friend Ernesto Guzman reminded of this fact. Bees are a biological system that interact with environment and management practices as in any livestock.
I doubt if a beekeeper will spend a single penny on Fumagillin if they don’t see any benefits of it.

Again monitoring and treatment as needed are the key to success.


Medhat Nasr
Edmonton Alberta.

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