James
We are mainly seeing N. ceranae. However, Dr. Cramer's ability to
differentiate apis from ceranae is a recent development, so we don't have data from a
lot of samples - yet.
FYI, last week we sent Robb Cramer samples from two or our own collapsing
colonies in MT - the colonies were going down last week in our storage shed.
One looked like classic CCD, the other had all of the visible signs of N.
apis. Curious to see the results from Robb.
Also talked today to a ND beekeeper, down to 2500 colonies from 6500, with
no end in sight. He did his own sampling for Nosema - some colonies and yards
were heavily infected, others tested negative.
However, I assume that Randy Oliver is correct -- where, when, what part of
a colony is sampled, how many bees are examined, all influence end result of
sampling. Obviously sampling protocols are something that we need to address
if we are to get reliable data.
Jerry
And yes, I'm being intentionally cautious. N. ceranae is certainly in U.S.
bees, sometimes at remarkably high levels. My gut sense is that it is part
of the CCD syndrome. Even if it isn't, we need to get a handle on it. N.
ceranae by itself is a big enough problem, if we believe the folks from Spain.
Finally, as to suicide disease - I'll buy dinner for anyone who can help me
relocate the reference. In April, when we found black queen cell virus and
sacbrood in some of the CCD bees, I did a major Google Search. Somewhere down
about 2500 listings, I found one paper that termed a mix of one of these
viruses and Nosema - suicide disease. I've looked for it again, but can't seem
to shake it out - although I've not waded through 2500 references to find it.
I should have marked it at the time, but that was before I knew just how
common N. ceranae was in U.S. bees. So, I know I saw the reference, but I
can't put my hands on it.
**************************************See AOL's top rated recipes
(http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)
******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm *
******************************************************
|
