AUGUST 15, 1016 



NOSEMA VS. ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE 



BY GEO. W. BUIiLAMORE^ F. R. M. S. 



Dysentery may occur in normal bees as 

 the result of conclitions, or it may occur 

 under normal conditions when (he be* has a 

 deranged digestive system. If the bees 

 winter on good food, only a small proportion 

 of the stocks affected with Isle of Wight 

 will show dysentery. The prominence given 

 to tliis symptom by Zander probably arose 

 from the fact that his observations were 

 first made when heavy losses were occurring 

 in cold wet years. A sickly bee on the un- 

 ripe or dark honey-dew stores that have to 

 serve at such times would be very much 

 subject to this trouble. Varieties of yeasts 

 occur in dysentery, but I do not think there 

 is one special kind responsible, tho all the 

 cases in one apiary may show large num- 

 bers of the same kind. Yeasts, and molds 

 which also cause fermentation, are certain 

 to be present in honey-dews, for instance. 



Both Swiss and German observers agree 

 that nosema has no particular symptom 

 except the death of the bees in large num- 

 bers. This is our view of Tsle of Wight 

 disease. 



I would advise caution, therefore, as to 

 harmlessness of nosema. In this country a 

 small percentage of people die of pneu- 

 monia. The pneumonia germ is reported to 

 be present in 60 per cent of the population. 

 There are districts in India where the ma- 

 larial parasite is present in the blood of 

 100 per cent of the native school children, 

 yet a slight infection would boAvl over a 

 European. I have read of a village where 

 all the inhabitants were carriers of the 

 typhoid bacillus. It was the visitor who 

 suffered from the effects of typhoid germs. 

 As to nosema and Isle of Wight disease, 

 I am personally committed to the statement 

 that file Isle of Wight disease is a.ssociated 

 with an intracellular parasite believed to he 

 the 3'oung form of nosema. I have often 

 picked up ci'awling bees in disease districts 

 and found tliis young form in the stomach- 

 walls. The life-history of a pathogenic pro- 

 tczoan such as nosema is necessarily con- 

 ipctnrc, as we cannot watch the growth and 

 development. We merely find the different 

 stages and piece them together. When any 



work of Rennie and Anderson is published 

 I may send you an article on nosema and 

 Tsle of Wight disease. There is nothing 

 fresh in what they are saying, apparently 

 — no new facts. 



Too much attention is given to nosema 

 spoi-e.s, I think. The poisons will be excret- 

 ed by growing stages and not by such a 

 resting form. A bee that gets thru the early 

 stages may well appear normal, altho spore- 

 laden. The suggestion has occurred to me 

 thai the difference between endemic and 

 epidemic nosema may be in the arising un- 

 der certain conditions of an infective young 

 foi-m. A few bees could pass them from 

 the " blood " to the salivary glands and 

 infect large numbers with the stomach 

 trouble. When disease developed the blood- 

 infected bees would have disappeared, and 

 proof would be impossible. This suggestion 

 is only one possibility, but T feel sure that 

 I couid dodge a lot of trouble if I could 

 dodge nosema. 



Albury, Herts, England. 



[Altho wintering colonies on unripe 

 honey or honey-dew may be, and often is, 

 the cause of dj'senteric trouble, this disor- 

 der, we are credibly informed, is more often 

 than not present in cases of Isle of Wight 

 disease when no question of unwholesome 

 stores arises. 



The gut content of the bee is normally 

 alkaline; but with nosema infection it b?- 

 comes acid, and this acid medium is a con- 

 genial breeding-ground for years; and 

 these yeasts which are frequently present 

 in enormous numbers are responsible for the 

 dysentery. A more correct term for this 

 disorder would, we think, be diarrhea, as 

 the active agent does not cause any disin- 

 tegration of the tissues of the gut. 



There appears, hoAvever, to be at least 

 one true dysentery of bees. Prof. C. E. 

 Bartholomew, of the Iowa State College, 

 has discovered in the faeces of dysenteric 

 bees numerous sporocysts of a protozoan 

 parasite whose life-history he has not yet 

 fully worked out. The tissues of the gut of 

 the infected bee are destroyed by this or- 

 ganism. — Ed.] 



BEE PARALYSIS 



V.Y MAJOR SHALLARD 



The first we knew here of bee paralysis 

 was wliat we called Californian trembling 

 disease. The bees got on the ground 

 and could not fly, and their wings trem- 



bled. It did not do any jiarticular amount 

 of harm, and we treated it by dashing a 

 half-cup of salt water across the combs. 

 This was about 2-5 years ago; and some 



