A small scale survey in Morocco revealed the presence of four honey bee viruses

Abstract

A small-scale survey was conducted on 12 beehives located in the Gharb region of Morocco in order to assess for the first time the presence of honey bee-infecting viruses in the country. A total of 240 individual bee samples were screened for seven honey bee viruses using reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. Among the infected samples, 41.7% contained one virus, 15% showed mixed infection with two viruses while 3.3% contained three. Deformed wing virus (DWV), was the most prevalent one, detected in 38.3% of the samples, followed by acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), sacbrood virus (SBV) and chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) (20%, 14.2% and 9.2% of infection rate, respectively). Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV) and black queen cell virus (BQCV) were not detected. Nucleotide sequences of PCR amplicons obtained from detected viruses shared 98.5-99.4% identity with isolates reported in the GenBank. Although bee viruses usually persist as asymptomatic infections and persist in the colonies as covert infections, they can dramatically affect honey bee health and shorten the lives of infected bees under certain conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first detection of ABPV, CBPV and SBV in honey bees in Morocco.