Bumble bees are closely related to honey bees. Both are affected by various Nosema bacteria. What can we learn from the bumble bee research that can apply to honey bees?

“We used molecular techniques to screen thousands of bumble bees to track Nosema infections before and after the bees began to decline,” said University of Illinois entomology professor Sydney Cameron, who led the new research. “We wanted to test the idea floating about for a couple of decades that Nosema bombi prevalence in declining populations is connected with commercial production of bumble bees for pollination.”

Read more here: Illinois Study suggests commercial bumble bee industry amplified a fungal pathogen of bees