Abstract
Virus host shifts occur frequently, but the whole range of host species and the actual transmission pathways are often poorly understood. Deformed wing virus (DWV), an RNA virus described from honeybees (Apis mellifera), has been shown to have a broad host range. Since ants are often scavenging on dead honeybees, foodborne transmission of these viruses may occur. However, the role of the ant Myrmica rubra as an alternative host is not known and foodborne transmission to ants has not been experimentally addressed yet. Here, we show with a 16-week feeding experiment that foodborne transmission enables DWV type-A and -B to infect M. rubra and that these ants may serve as a virus reservoir. However, the titers of both plus- and minus-sense viral RNA strands decreased over time. Since the ants were fed with highly virus-saturated honeybee pupae, this probably resulted in initial viral peaks, then approaching lower equilibrium titers in infected individuals later. Since DWV infections were also found in untreated field-collected M. rubra colonies, our results support the wide host range of DWV and further suggest foodborne transmission as a so far underestimated spread mechanism.
Highlights
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) can cause a significant impact on human- and animal health [1,2,3] and are often the product of a host shift, where a pathogen jumps from its original host to new species [4]
All the samples from treatment 1 (T1) and
treatment 2 (T2) were strongly positive, with two exceptions
Summary
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) can cause a significant impact on human- and animal health [1,2,3] and are often the product of a host shift, where a pathogen jumps from its original host to new species [4]. Prominent examples include severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus or the still ongoing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) pandemic [3,4,5] Pathogens and their novel hosts lack a co-evolutionary history, which can lead to drastic effects on host populations [6]. RNA viruses have a high potential to cross species barriers because of high mutation rates that enable fast adaptive changes [7,8], which make them prominent among EIDs [9] Such RNA viruses have been suggested to contribute to the recent decline of wild pollinators and losses of managed ones, thereby potentially endangering valuable pollination services [10,11,12,13]. It is not surprising that virus transmission between managed honeybees, Apis mellifera, and wild bees has recently been speculated [14,15]
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