The Appliance of Science - Where are we now with Nosema ceranae?
Author(s)
Norman Carreck
Abstract
In a Review Article in our Special Issue of the Journal of Apicultural Research on “honey bee colony losses”, published at the beginning of 2010, IBRA Council Member Robert Paxton posed the question: does Nosema ceranae cause “Colony Collapse Disorder” in honey bees? (Paxton, 2010). He drew attention to the fact that there now seemed good evidence that the organism causes damage to colonies in some areas such as Spain, but elsewhere, although widespread, it appeared benign. Paxton posed several questions for future research. Firstly, whether genetic markers can be developed to differentiate between different strains of the organism to determine whether they differ in virulence, and secondly to experimentally demonstrate a causal link between N. ceranae and colony losses.
