Abstract
Apis mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV) is a large double stranded DNA virus of honey bees, but its relationship with other parasites and prevalence are poorly known. We analyzed individual honey bees from three colonies at different times post emergence in order to monitor the dynamics of the AmFV gut colonization under natural conditions. Prevalence and loads of microsporidia and trypanosomes were also recorded, as well as five common honey bee RNA viruses. The results show that a high proportion of bees get infected with AmFV during the first week post-emergence (75%) and that AmFV DNA levels remained constant. A similar pattern was observed for microsporidia while trypanosomes seem to require more time to colonize the gut. No significant associations between these three infections were found, but significant positive correlations were observed between AmFV and RNA viruses. In parallel, the prevalence of AmFV in France and Sweden was assessed from pooled honey bee workers. The data indicate that AmFV is almost ubiquitous, and does not seem to follow seasonal patterns, although higher viral loads were significantly detected in spring. A high prevalence of AmFV was also found in winter bees, without obvious impact on overwintering of the colonies.
Highlights
Besides their economic importance as major crop pollinators, honey bees are tight members of natural ecosystems in which they play fundamental roles [1]
Honey bee workers were collected at one week intervals from three healthy colonies and DNA was separately extracted from guts and bodies prior to PCR analysis
A majority of older workers were found infected with Apis mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV), N. ceranae and C. mellificae/L. passim
Summary
Besides their economic importance as major crop pollinators, honey bees are tight members of natural ecosystems in which they play fundamental roles [1] Because they overlap with human activities, pollinators are currently threatened by either/or biotic and abiotic factors [2,3,4]. The relationships between microorganisms within the bee colony are tightly balanced by their environment and some of these may become pathogenic for honey bees under stressing conditions or when triggering factors are present, leading to the production of clinical signs at the colony level. This has been demonstrated for some facultative pathogens such as Serratia sp. This has been demonstrated for some facultative pathogens such as Serratia sp. which can be involved in septicemia in insects [14] and for some honey bee viruses which normally produce covert infections, but can become acute infections when colonies are highly infested by the mite V. destructor [15]
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