Table 3. Summary of Nosema ceranae infection levels and percent of individual bees infected with N. ceranae in each of the five experimental colonies.

Colony #	Age Group	n sampled	n infected	% infected	NSI (x106)	NSS (x106)
1	RE	50	0	0	0	0
	Nurse	26	2	7.7	0.93	0.07
	Forager	50	3	6	41.77	2.56
	BG	150	7	4.7	19.19	0.9
2	RE	50	0	0	0	0
	Nurse	50	9	18	0.35	0.06
	Forager	50	15	30	2.01	0.6
	BG	150	5	3.3	5.54	0.18
3	RE	50	0	0	0	0
	Nurse	50	3	6	6.53	0.39
	Forager	50	9	18	28.32	5.1
	BG	150	12	8	14.25	1.14
4	RE	50	0	0	0	0
	Nurse	50	5	10	0.11	0.01
	Forager	50	18	36	7.08	2.55
	BG	150	24	16	9.27	1.48
5	RE	50	0	0	0	0
	Nurse	50	11	22	1.33	0.29
	Forager	50	37	74	1.52	1.13
	BG	150	61	40.7	2.89	1.18

RE = recently emerged bees, BG = background bees collected from the inner hive cover, outer frames, hive entrance and brood area at the same time as each group (RE, Nurse-aged bees, Foraging-aged bees), NSI = mean number of spores across infected bees, NSS = mean number of spores across all sampled bees (composite sample).