author(s)
Divya, Sapna Katna, Bachittar Singh Rana, Harish Kumar Sharma and Avinash Chauhan

abstract
Five apiaries of Apis mellifera bees of Himachal Pradesh placed at Narayangrh, Haryana during autumn and winter were surveyed to study the symptoms of Nosema ceranae. Numerous dead bees were found lying on the ground in front of the hives. The infected bees were crawling in front of hives with swollen abdomens. They were unable to fly and walk properly. In diseased bees, the ventriculus was white with less constrictions. The microscopic studies revealed the presence of several, oval to sausage shaped spores (4.5 µm ± 0.109 x 2.1 µm ± 0.093). Pathogenic studies showed that 81.06% bees died at 16^th day of post infection which confirms the virulency of the disease. Confinement of A. mellifera bees in hives was avoided by feeding sugar syrup (50%) to each colony in order to manage the disease. But this strategy was not found to be effective in our studies.