A scientific note: Survey for Nosema spp. in preserved Apis spp.

Abstract

Historically, Nosema apis was thought to be the only species to infect Apis mellifera, but recent reports showed that Nosema ceranae is a second microsporidium capable of infecting A. mellifera (Higes et al. 2006; Huang et al. 2007). While N. ceranae was first described in 1996 in Apis cerana (Fries et al. 1996) and initially believed to be restricted to the natural host range of A. cerana (Fries 1997), N. ceranae has been found everywhere beekeeping is practiced. N. ceranae has been present in the USA since 1995 (Chen et al. 2008) and the earliest published report of A. mellifera samples containing N. ceranae dates back to 1990 in samples from Uruguay (Invernizzi et al. 2009). N. ceranae has also been found in other Apis spp. such as Apis florea and Apis dorsata colonies in Northern Thailand, but no N. apis was detected (Chaimanee et al. 2010; Suwannapong et al. 2011). Samples from the Solomon Islands revealed that Apis koschevnikovi were infected with N. ceranae, but only in areas where A. cerana had been sympatric and no N. apis was detected (Botias et al. 2012). N. ceranae has also been found in species outside of the genus Apis. Three species of bumble bee collected from 2005–2008 in South America have been found to be naturally infected with N. ceranae: Bombus atratus, Bombus morio, and Bombus bellicosus, but not infected with N. apis or Nosema bombi (Plischuk et al. 2009). Interestingly, in B. atratus, Nosema spores were