Does viral load alter behavior of the bee parasite Varroa destructor?

Carl Giuffre,David R. Tarpy,Sharon R. Lubkin,Olav Rueppell

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0217975

Carl Giuffre, David R. Tarpy + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217975

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Abstract

The invasive mite Varroa destructor has negatively impacted global apiculture, by being a vector for many viruses of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Until now, most studies have been limited to varroa-honey bee or virus-honey bee interactions. The aim of this study is to bridge the important research gap of varroa-virus interactions by correlating varroa behavior with viral load. Ten-minute video recordings of 200 varroa mites were analyzed, and average speeds of the mites were compared to individual qPCR viral loads for deformed wing virus (DWV) and sacbrood virus (SBV). Statistically significant models reveal that colony, DWV, and SBV all might play a role in mite behavior, suggesting that the varroa-virus interaction needs to be an integral part of future studies on honey bee pathogens.

Highlights

The invasive mite Varroa destructor has negatively impacted apiculture worldwide [1]
Mites were tested for a suite of seven common honey bee viruses [24] the collected mites only tested positive for deformed wing virus (DWV) and sacbrood virus (SBV)
Bayesian information criterion (BIC) favors selection of Model C, which suggests that mite viral load seems to be unrelated to mite behavior

Summary

Introduction

The invasive mite Varroa destructor has negatively impacted apiculture worldwide [1]. Varroa experienced an evolutionary host-shift from the Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) to the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) as early as 1960 and has been strongly implicated for playing a role in Colony Collapse Disorder and reduced health of bees in general [1,2]. These ectoparasites go through two major phases in their life cycle—the reproductive and phoretic stages. When a queen is infected with viral pathogens, the health of the entire colony can be compromised as she has the potential to vertically transmit virus to her offspring through oviposition [5]

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