139 



NOSEMA APIS IN HIVE BEES.^ 



John Rennie, D.Sc, University of Aberdeen, and 

 Elsie J. Harvey, Research Assistant. 



[Reprinted from " The Scottish Journal of Agriculture" 

 Vol. II., No. 4, October 19 19.] 



Whilst there are numerous records of disease amongst adult 

 bees, only a very few references exist in which the disease has been 

 shown to be definitely associated with a causal organism. Donhoff 

 and Leuckhart (3) in a paper published in 1857 described a disease 

 associated with an affection of the chyle stomach, which they 

 showed to be infectious by feeding healthy colonies with syrup 

 contaminated with the macerated stomachs of diseased individuals. 

 They found in the chyle stomach numerous oval corpuscles which 

 they regarded as the spores of a fungus. In the following year 

 Higg.ns (5), in England, described the loss of a stock of bees 

 associated with the presence of minute oval spore-like bodies in the 

 dead bees. In both of these cases the spores were probably those 

 of Nosema apis. In 1912 Graham-Smith, Fantbam, Porter and 

 BuUamore (4) in examining bees from the Isle of Wight claimed that 

 a minute protozoan parasite found in the alimentary canal, and 

 previously observed by Fantham and Porier in 1906, was the 

 cause of the condition popularly known as Isle-of-Wit^ht disease. 

 Incidentally it may be mentioned that for reasons in part already 

 given (Anderson and Rennie, i) and (Rennie and Harvey, 7), and 

 also from evidence here submitted, we dissent from this view. In 

 1907, Zander (9) described a disease of adult bees in Bavaria with 

 which he associated as a causal agent the protozoan referred to, 

 discovering it independently and naming it Nosema apis. In 

 1909 (10) he published an account of the main facts in the life 

 cycle of this parasite. In 19 12 Fantham and Porter (4) also 

 described the development and life history of the same organism. 

 So far as we know, this is the only organism as yet identified in 

 association with disease in adult bees. 



The parasite Nosema apis has a wide geographical distribution. 

 It is well known in the British Isles. It occurs in Germany, where, 

 according to White (8), " it has been enc(5untered by a number of 

 investigators" ; it is known in Switzerland, and we have on a large 

 number of occasions obtained it in bees forwarded from Italy. In 

 these last cases it has never been associated with epizootic disease. 

 In Victoria, Australia, it is well known, and it has there been the 

 subject of extensive study (Beuhne, 2). White, in the paper 

 already referred to, has found it " in samples of bees received from 



^ This article was received by the Board on 2nd June 1919. 



(88».) 60. 11/19. J.S.&CO.,Ltd. 



