Nosema apis infection in worker and queen Apis mellifera

Abstract

Worker and queen honey bees were fed individually with Nosema apis spores in sucrose solution and then returned to cages containing several hundred of their worker bee nestmates. After 3 to 7 days, the workers and queens that had been fed spores were sacrificed. Worker and queen ventriculi were removed and examined for spores by light microscopy, and DNA was extracted. The DNA was subjected to amplification with polymerase chain reaction, using primer sequences specific to N. apis DNA. The PCR analysis was more sensitive than examination for spores by light microscopy, in detecting N. apis infection. Worker bees and queen bees were infected at similar rates by the inoculation procedure.