Nosematosis of bees - signs, treatment, prevention

Bee nosematosis is a serious invasive disease of adult bee colonies, affecting their digestive system. It is caused by a single-celled spore-forming parasite nosema, which penetrates the body of the insect and is localized in the epithelial cells of the midgut.

Affected intestines of bees cease to fully perform their functions, develops severe diarrhea, which is the most typical external sign of this disease.

Nosematosis develops according to this scheme. Spores of the pathogen enter the digestive tract of insects and settle in the midgut. Here they germinate and the embryo penetrates into the cells of the surface layer, where they continue their development.

Across 3 days this process ends with the destruction of cells and the release into the intestinal lumen of new protozoa. Gradually the epithelium is rejected, nutrients can enter the body. Bees are weakening, lose appetite, which later ends in their death.

How the disease manifests itself

Nosematosis can occur in overt or covert form, which can pass into one another. Acute occurs in regions with long winters and develops in bee colonies before spring, at that moment, when wintering is not over and the exhibition of hives is still far away. Sometimes the first stage of the disease coincides with the beginning of egg laying in the uterus and peaks in a couple of months, during the height of breeding brood.

Acute nosematosis is characterized by the following symptoms:

• The bee family is quite excited, emits continuous noise.
• Some bees fly out of the hive, but they can't fly far, they soon perish.
• If the wintering of insects takes place indoors, it has a characteristic unpleasant odor.
• Traces of defecation are visible on the eyes, and if you open the lid of the hive and look inside, it will turn out, that the frames near the club are also very polluted with bee droppings.
• In the spring the cleaning flight is sluggish, individual specimens cannot take off and crawl near their home. They are weakened, the abdomen of the increased sizes can be observed, obliquely placed in relation to the body of the wing.
• Mass death of bees can be noted, especially in late winter - early spring. Live insects are mostly significantly weakened, respond poorly to external stimuli.
• There is a so-called "wet submarine" (if you click on the belly of a dead bee, then a large amount of liquid feces will be released).
• Insects consume a lot of protein food, which further intensifies the defeat.
• The total number of workers is declining, they bring less bribes. The final productivity of the bee colony suffers from this, the amount of honey collected decreases.
• Feeding bees stop caring for their offspring.
• The number of bee-collectors is decreasing and young insects are moving faster, corresponding to their age, starting to fly for a bribe.
• The infected uterus stops laying eggs and dies. There is an unplanned change.
• Drones become incapable of performing their functions.

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Nosematosis in a latent form is more characteristic of the south, with warm winter areas and occurs in spring and summer. It differs in that, that all the symptoms of this disease are smoothed out and are observed only in some individuals.

Yet, It does not mean, that all is well. Over time, nosematosis progresses, finds new victims, the number of healthy insects is declining. The new brood is poorly developed, there is a quiet replacement of the uterus.

This is what beehive frames look like in nosematosis in bees.

How sharp, and the latent type of disease is difficult to diagnose only on the basis of external signs, as the most characteristic symptom of this disease is diarrhea, may be inherent in other diseases of bees or be the result of bees eating poor quality food.

Much more accurate to determine, what to deal with, it is possible by means of laboratory researches of fabrics and contents of intestines of the affected copies. In addition to microscopic analysis, there is another reliable way to recognize the disease - the appearance of the midgut of dead bees. In healthy insects, the midgut is reddish-brown and has a folded surface, and in those infected with nosematosis - white and smooth surface. The gut itself sank, increased in length and inflated, easily torn.

How the disease occurs

Spores of nozema in nature are found everywhere - in water, soil, on plants and quite resistant to chemical and physical influences. Therefore, they can be the primary source of disease for the entire bee family:

• Be weakened insect, in the body of which spores can enter with poor quality food or water.
• Patients with nosematosis thieves, who come into contact with healthy insects in someone else's hive.
• The disease is also transmitted from sick families to healthy ones through common food, in which the infection is present.
• Undisinfected empty honey frames, which were previously located in the infected hive.
• Frames with affected brood, which strengthen weak families.
• Properly unprocessed inventory, by means of which necessary works on collecting honey and care of bees are carried out.

The development of nosematosis is preceded by:

• increase in outside air temperature or its sharp fluctuations;
• late spring;
• long windy and rainy weather;
• high humidity inside the hives;
• early brood yield;
• untimely autumn feeding of bee families with sugar, conducted to form a family goes to winter;
• poor quality feed or lack thereof;
• a large number of pads in winter food;
• carbohydrate starvation of bees.

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Any of these factors can significantly contribute to the weakening of the bee colony and the development of the disease, and a combination of several of them increases the risk of nosematosis outbreak several times.

Treatment of the disease

Given that fact, that the outbreak occurs in early spring and summer, the main treatment activities are carried out just then. How to treat sick bees from nosematosis, it is necessary to carry out medical feeding in the fall and when it is necessary to do it?

With a relatively low incidence of nosematosis, a number of measures should be taken:

• release insects on an early cleaning flight;
• transplant them into brand new ones, formalin disinfected hives;
• remove frames, contaminated with feces, infested with parasites;
• clean them mechanically and disinfect;
• the flywheel and the areas between the frames treated with nosematol;
• replace substandard food with fresh sugar syrup;
• strengthen infected families with healthy material;
• if necessary, then replace the queen bee.

At an average and strong level of infection to manage these measures alone will not work. This requires a more effective way - chemicals, as well as vegetable raw materials, which can also help in this matter.

1. The most effective tools today, the active substance of which is fumagillinic acid and its salts. Among them are Fumagillin, which is used for therapeutic purposes in the spring before the honey harvest, at a time when the first flight of bees is over. It is added to honey-sugar dough (candy) or medicated syrup and fed to insects for at least three weeks. During the honey harvest, the treatment of bees with this drug should be stopped.
2. In early spring, to stop severe bee diarrhea, they are fed top dressing with the addition of the drug nosemat, has a pronounced therapeutic effect on the body of insects. Before flying, it is evenly mixed with candy, then already given with sugar syrup. Feeding is carried out twice, adhering to the interval between them a week. The same drugs are fed to bees in the fall before winter.
3. Thymol is used for quick treatment of the disease in the spring, which is made in the first feeding.
4. Feeding with apistym shows excellent results, which contains a set of substances necessary for bees. The drug is diluted in sugar syrup and fed to bees in the spring for a couple of weeks, changing fluids every other day. In summer and autumn feeding is carried out after honey collection and the end of the flight of bees. You can add apistim to the insect drinker, dissolving it in clean water.
5. Medicinal plants can also be used as an excellent remedy against nosematosis. Wormwood can be especially useful in this case. Suitable alcohol tincture or water infusion of herbs. The filtered infusion as a medicine is added to the prepared sugar syrup and then fed to bees. The tincture is used in a similar way.
6. Stops the development of nosematosis garlic - a plant, known for its powerful bactericidal properties. A few drops of fresh juice are mixed and dissolved in sugar syrup, which feeds insects. That commodity honey at pumping out did not have a sharp garlic smell, garlic treatment should be stopped at least three weeks before pumping.

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Though, that nosematosis affects bees in the spring and summer and the main measures to combat it are carried out at this time, Autumn feeding is aimed at supporting a weakened bee family, give her the opportunity to survive the winter safely, and prevent recurrence of the disease next year, therefore they should not be neglected in any case.

Disease prevention

Outbreaks of nosematosis in the apiary - an unpleasant phenomenon for the beekeeper, but how to treat this disease, which is quite burdensome, it is better to warn her. That is why the prevention of nosematosis in bees is so important.

This requires:

• Keep only healthy and strong families in the apiary, because they themselves are not sources of infection and are the longest resistant to infections. Do not use hives without prior disinfection, frames and other beekeeping inventory and equipment.
• Adhere to the quarantine distance between adjacent apiaries. When buying new bees, place them only in clean treated hives and leave them first away from everyone else.
• Follow the general rules of detention, timely carry out sanitary measures - clean the hives and frames when changing, disinfect them and maintain an overall healthy climate in the apiary. Create optimal conditions for wintering bees, to insulate beehives, provide them with ventilation.
• Intensive increase in the number of young insects in early spring is important to prevent the development of the disease, as they are more resistant to nosematosis. Therefore, the more young people in the bee family, the lower the level of its defeat.

The number of family members directly depends on the ability of the uterus to reproduce, to strengthen which requires quality feed. But, However, with intensive breeding increases the consumption of protein feed, which leads to disease progression. Therefore, for preventive purposes, it should be slightly limited and give carbohydrate fertilizer.