Sick flies need your help

[Chris Boake]

hampton at hawaii.edu (Hampton Carson) wrote:
>Richard:
>In DIS 31, page 170, 1957, Wolfson, Stalker and I published a note on an 
>infection of Drosophila stocks that sounds a little like what you are 
>experiencing. It turned out to be a microsporidian protozoan parasite; as 
>I recall it was referred by a protozoologist at Illinois (name not 
>recalled by me) as a species of Nosema.


You can treat Nosema with a compound called fumadil or fumagillin (one
is a proprietary name but I don't recall which).  It is used for 
honeybees.  There are several fairly recent papers that describe
Nosema as a pest of Drosophila.  I have the references in my lab
which is 2 buildings away & 7 floors down.  If you can't find anything
with a bibliographic search, e-mail me and I'll dig up the information.
I also have a jar of the stuff so I could tell you how to get it.
cheers,
Chris