The understanding of Nosema seems to be in the very early stages.
Similar ambiguity and confusion happened with tracheal and Varroa
mites. I remember a well respected and experienced bee researcher at
a large beekeeper conference suggesting that we did not have to worry
much about tracheal mites given past experiences in England.
Figuring out the effects of Nosema on colonies may be even more
complex than the for the other two maladies given the large range in
intensity possible in any individual (spores or DNA copies per bee).
This has a big influence on a composite sample, which is the only time
efficient way of currently gauging infection.
And then there is the question of what infection levels are possibly
harmful. Even in Spain, there seem to be different views on whether
high levels are common and whether they cause collapses. More
globally, levels may be different at different times of year in
different areas, and similar levels may have different effects in
different environments. Clearly high levels are associated with
colony mortality in some areas with long winters and treatments may be
necessary. In areas with milder winters there have been at least a
couple of field experiments in which Nosema ceranae copy number per
bee correlates with weakening or slower growth of colonies:
https://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/64133000/PDFFiles/501-600/518-Villa--Negative%20evidence%20for%20effects.pdfhttp://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/64133000/PDFFiles/501-600/529-Rinderer--Functionality%20of%20Varroa-Resistanrt.pdf
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