Excerpt from Nosema-Disease

The, fact that Nosema-disease is not a new disease deserves em phasis. The knowledge of the disease and its name only are of recent origin. Nosema-disease, like the brood diseases, has probably existed among bees longer than history records the keeping of bees by man. Since the disease is not a new one, fear regarding additional losses from it would not be justified. On the other hand, as we know of the disorder, we may entertain the hope that the losses due to it may now be lessened.

Until 1909 the existence of Nosema Infection among bees was not generally known to beekeepers, although it had been studied some what by Domhoff (1857) about a half century earlier. Zander began his studies a decade ago and since the appearance of his first paper (1909) a number of investigators have made studies on the disorder. In. The papers which have been written concerning the infection, widely differing views regarding certain points have been expressed. To discuss these different views would be to go beyond the scope of the present bulletin.

The writer began the study of Nosema infection in 1910 following the demonstration by him that the disorder exists in the United States. In pursuing these investigations the object has been not to devise a treatment for the disease, but rather to ascertain such facts concerning the disorder that the beekeepers might be able to devise methods for its treatment with the assurance that they would be not only efficient but also economical. While there is yet much to be learned about the disease, this object has been fairly well attained. Relations which the results obtained bear to practical apiculture should be borne in mind, therefore, in reading the paper.

During the studies the effect of the disease on colonies and on apiaries, the transmission of the disease, the resistance of the infecting germ to heat, drying, sunlight, fermentation, putrefaction, and dis infectants, and the effect of drugs on the disease are among the problems which have been considered.

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