Nosema ceranae is the microsporidium causing a disease highly prevalent in honey bees. Since few treatments are available to control this disease, cleaning and disinfection of beekeeping equipment could be a useful tool for decreasing the number of viable spores and therefore the risk of infection. Up to date, the information about the efficacy of substances suitable for beekeeping use is scarce. In this work, the sporicidal activity of different products against N. ceranae spores has been tested using a new method here developed based on International harmonisation norms. Stainless steel surfaces (5 cm²) were contaminated with 100,000 fresh percoll® purified N. ceranae spores. The surfaces were exposed for 5 and 15 minutes with different products selected either because they are common use disinfectants (sodium hypochlorite, acetic acid, ethanol 96°, ammonia solution, or povidone-iodine), or because they are commercial products marketed for surface disinfection (Inokuo®, Mycoplasma OFF^TM, Biocidal ZF^TM) or for Varroa control (Ecoxal). After exposure, the viability of spores was analysed by flow cytometry after staining with propidium iodide solution and compared to spores exposed to water (negative control) or autoclaved (positive control). Among tested products, ammonia solution, sodium hypochlorite and Mycoplasma OFF^TM, showed sufficient effect to be used in equipment disinfection. Other products as acetic acid causing an increase of cell debris could be also useful although they require further investigations.

Nosema ceranae是引起蜜蜂高度流行的疾病的微孢子虫。由于很少有治疗方法可以控制这种疾病，因此养蜂设备的清洁和消毒可能是减少活孢子数量并因此降低感染风险的有用工具。迄今为止，关于适合养蜂使用的物质的功效的信息很少。在这项工作中，已经使用基于国际协调规范开发的新方法测试了不同产品对N. ceranae孢子的杀孢子活性。不锈钢表面 (5 cm ² ) 被 100,000 新鲜 percoll® 纯化的N. ceranae 污染孢子。选择不同的产品使表面暴露 5 分钟和 15 分钟，或者因为它们是常用消毒剂（次氯酸钠、乙酸、乙醇 96°、氨溶液或聚维酮碘），或者因为它们是用于表面消毒的商业产品(Inokuo®, Mycoplasma OFF ^TM , Biocidal ZF ^TM ) 或用于 Varroa control (Ecoxal)。暴露后，用碘化丙啶溶液染色后通过流式细胞仪分析孢子的活力，并与暴露于水（阴性对照）或高压灭菌（阳性对照）的孢子进行比较。在被测产品中，氨溶液、次氯酸钠和Mycoplasma OFF ^TM，显示出足够的效果，可用于设备消毒。导致细胞碎片增加的其他产品如乙酸也可能有用，尽管它们需要进一步研究。