> By the way  Canadians rely on fumagillin to get them through winter and reduce nosema impacts on winter kill.

I know a guy who has been feeding fumagillin for something like 40 years. I asked him if he thought it made his bees healthier. He said he didn't know. It's like insurance, he said. You hope you don't need it, but you buy it anyway. 

I understand the logic, but feeding antibiotics to bees without proof that it is effective is a bit different, don't you think? Besides, both Ernesto Guzman-Novoa and Geoffrey Williams suggest that Nosema is not a major factor in winter loss -- in Canada.

I mean, it begs the question, why do research when people are going to ignore the results and keep doing what they always did? The Canadians you mention have no way of knowing whether the fumagillin does what they think it does.

> Nosema disease and tracheal mites were apparently the least damaging factors -- Guzman-Novoa 2010

> Chemotherapy using the fungicide fumagillin reduced N. ceranae spore intensity but had no effect on colony survival -- Williams 2013

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