Nosema Cerana in Scotland

[Ruary]

On the nosema sampling thing I mostly hear of just smashing up bee guts and adding fluid then looking for spores in a slide and graticule setup
The method I was shown though a few years ago involved drying the sample by heating the slide and staining to show up the spores
what do you guys think is the best method

Depends on whether you want to make a permament slide or not. Nosema spores show up clearly with just plain water, show up better with negative stain and with either of those there is no need to dry and stain the spores.

If you want to check viability the Giemsa stain will do that.

According to the COLOSS BEE BOOK ( available from IBRA web ste and open access) infection level is best determined by either average spores/ bee, or by percentage of infected bees.
Personally I have never bothered to dry and stain the spores. I have made slides with negative stained material using glycerine jelly as mountant which avoids the need for total dehydration.

[The Drone Ranger]

Thanks Ruary

I'll web search that Coloss Book

Randy Oliver et.al. all seem to use the Hymocytometer (spelling please) and liquid
The SASA staff at our training day used stain and drying method and graticule

[Ruary]

I'll web search that Coloss Book

The COLOSS book is being published in 3 volumes, the various chapters are first published in part form by IBRA, before each volume is completed.

Randy Oliver et.al. all seem to use the Haemocytometer (spelling please) and liquid
The SASA staff at our training day used stain and drying method and graticule

This seems to be adding extra work and there might be difficulty in obtaining a graticule that coresponds to standard. Variables that immediately spring to mind
1 number of bees in sample
2 volume of water in which they are crushed
3 size of drop of water placed on slide
4 field of view of microscope etc.
5 graticule markings
The use of a haemocytometer covers most of these. Randy has (in the interest of speed and convenience) gone for two methods.
!/2 ml water/per bee and uses a 'standard' twizzle stick to provide ad rop of water of constant size. This has been correlated with the use of a haemocytometer and provides reasonably accurate regression line.
The other method for IPM uses sequential testing where 10 bee abdomens are individually examined for nosema.