Bob, I don't think that there is as much disagreement between us as you make
out.

>"Nosema cerane a big problem or much to do about nothing"

The title was "Nosema ceranae, kiss of death or much ado about nothing?"

Bob, you left off the critical question mark at the end!  It was a question,
not a statement.  I have an open mind on this, and everything else.

Re low N ceranae loads, I have spoken to too many successful commercial
beekeepers and seen too much data from around the world to conclude that a
low level of N ceranae is invariably the kiss of death for a colony.  Bob,
you have still not addressed why Hackenberg did not find N ceranae to be a
problem between 1985 and 2006--he had it in his operation for at least 20
years!

On the other hand, for any commercial operation currently, I feel that
keeping parasite levels to a minimum is a wise business strategy.  The
question then, is simply "What is the economic threshold?"

A single nosema spore is clearly not indication that treatment is
necessary.  50M spores would clearly indicate treatment.  So the threshold
lies somewhere between.  What we are trying to figure out is just what that
threshold is at each time of season, and with relation to other factors.

Re virus inoculation--I used a purified virus extract cultured in bee pupae
that had been inoculated with haemolymph from CCD-collapsing bees from a
commercial operation.  It was diluted and fed in syrup, one dose.  Nothing
was ground up nor sprayed.  However, that technique was used by Rinderer,
and could easily be used by any queen breeder looking for virus resistance.

Randy Oliver
Not wishing to have someone else paint me into a corner!

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