Ames Farms asks:
 
<I'm confused why we are not just calling CCD, Nosema Ceranae?  Its  found in 
all CCD samples and the 
symptoms of N. Ceranae appear to fit your  descriptions.>
 
I agree that N. Ceranae is a possible candidate for CCD, but we  don't know 
whether its a cause or a consequence of CCD, or maybe it is just  coincidental. 
 No one has shown that N. ceranae causes CCD, that  requires us to follow a 
procedure call Koch's Principles.  In essence, we  have to extract the 
pathogen, introduce it into healthy colonies, induce CCD,  then recover N. ceranae.  
 
Our Bozeman partner lab just got the equipment and primers in place to  
positively identify ceranae versus apis and will be working on  culturing the 
pathogen under a grant received last week from the CA  beekeepers.
 
Regardless of my personal opinions, we can't yet say that N.  ceranae causes 
CCD.  I can say, it certainly is associated with the  syndrome in the colonies 
that we've sampled.  FYI, in S. African, a  combination of a specific virus 
and N. ceranae has been named 'suicide  disease'.
 
FYI, Randy Oliver has a good overview of N. ceranae in the Dec  ABJ, and Dr. 
Robert Cramer at Bozeman is also looking at alternative fungicides  - question 
is still open about the effectiveness of fumidil.  We're all  working 
together on this pathogen - regardless of the role it plays with respect  to CCD, it 
in itself appears to be a problem - we tend to believe the Spanish  
investigators, especially in our drier, warmer, western states - where the  climate is 
often similar to that of Spain.
 
Jerry
 
 
 



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