Abstract
Objective: In the absence of known clinical symptoms, viruses were considered to be the most probable key pathogens of honey bee. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and distribution of honey bee viruses in managed Apis mellifera and Apis cerana in China. Methods: We conducted a screening of 8 honey bee viruses on A. mellifera and A. cerana samples collected from 54 apiaries from 13 provinces in China using RT-PCR. Results: We found that the types and numbers of viral species significantly differed between A. mellifera and A. cerana. Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV), Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV), Apis mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV), and Kakugo virus (DWV-A/KV) were the primary viruses found in A. mellifera colonies, whereas Chinese Sacbrood Bee Virus (CSBV) and Sacbrood Bee Virus (SBV) were the primary viruses found in A. cerana. The percentage infection of BQCV and CSBV were 84.6% and 61.6% in all detected samples. We first detected the occurrences of Varroa destructor virus-1 (VDV-1 or DWV-B) and DWV-A/KV in China but not ABPV in both A. mellifera and A. cerana. Conclusion: This study showed that BQCV and CSBV are the major threat to investigated A. mellifera and A. cerana colonies.
Highlights
Honey bees are regarded as the most important pollinators for crops, fruits, and vegetables [1]
To obtain a broader spectrum of information about honey bee viruses and to elucidate their potential threats to honey bees, we investigated the presence of viruses in A. mellifera and A. cerana bee samples from different provinces that reported a large number of bees crawling in front of the hives
We found that Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV) and Chinese Sacbrood Bee Virus (CSBV) were the most prevalent in A. mellifera and A. cerana, respectively
Summary
Honey bees are regarded as the most important pollinators for crops, fruits, and vegetables [1]. Bacteria, fungi, and parasites were all confirmed to be capable of inducing reductions in colony populations [5 8]. Among these pathogens, more than 20 viruses were identified to infect honey bee. Most of them belonged to the family Picornaviridae and possessed a single-strand positivesense RNA genome These viruses were demonstrated to have severe impacts on individual bees by damaging their physiology [6], interfering with their productivity [9], and contributing to behavioral disorders [10] and on the colony growth rate and colony fitness (i.e., a decrease of foraging activity at the colony level [11])
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