They found that N.ceranae did not affect the fat body content which is an indicator of energy stores, but changed the vitellogenin titer, which is an indicator of fertility and longevity, the total antioxidant capacity and the queen mandibular pheromones. The strange thing is that these changes were contrary to the predicted direction that they were all increased in
Nosema-infected queens. It is possible that these are only seen in 8 day old queens, perhaps due to accelerated
development as seen in N. apis infected worker bees. It is not clear whether in older queens these changes will
remain or become reversed.