Abstract
Populations of Apis mellifera and Apis cerana in China and Vietnam were surveyed in order to study possible pathogen spill-over from European to Asian honeybees. This is the first survey of the prevalence of honeybee pathogens in apiaries in Vietnam, including pathogen prevalence in wild A. cerana colonies never in contact with A. mellifera. The bee samples were assayed for eight honeybee viruses: deformed wing virus (DWV); black queen cell virus (BQCV); sac brood virus (SBV); acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV); Kashmir bee virus (KBV); Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV); chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV); and slow bee paralysis virus (SBPV), for two gut parasites (Nosema ssp.) and for the causative agent for European foulbrood (Melissococcus plutonius). The Vietnamese samples were assayed for Acarapis woodi infestation. No clear evidence of unique inter-specific transmission of virus infections between the two honeybee species was found. However, in wild A. cerana colonies, the only virus infection detected was DWV. With findings of IAPV infections in Chinese samples of A. cerana colonies in contact with A. mellifera, inter-specific transmission of IAPV cannot be ruled out. BQCV was the most prevalent virus in managed colonies irrespective of bee species. We did not detect the causative agent of European foulbrood, M. plutonius in wild or isolated colonies of A. cerana in Vietnam or China; however, low incidence of this pathogen was found in the Asian host species when in contact with its European sister species. No evidence for the presence of A. woodi was found in the Vietnamese samples.
Highlights
Throughout the world, the European honeybee (Apis mellifera ) is plagued by two parasites whose original host was the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana
We analysed the prevalence of eight honeybee viruses (DWV, acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV), black queen cell virus (BQCV), chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), sac brood virus (SBV) and slow bee paralysis virus (SBPV)) in 12 A. mellifera colonies in Vietnam and 46 A. mellifera colonies in China
Sampled bees from managed A. mellifera colonies in Vietnam were infected with four viruses: deformed wing virus (DWV) (75 %), BQCV (100 %), CBPV (67 %) and SBV (42 %)
Summary
Throughout the world, the European honeybee (Apis mellifera ) is plagued by two parasites whose original host was the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana. Six different virus infections so far have been identified from Asian honeybees using serological tools: apis iridescent virus (AIV), black queen cell virus (BQCV), deformed wing virus (DWV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV) and Thai and Chinese sac brood virus (TSBV, CSBV) (Allen and Ball 1996). In Korean samples of A. cerana , five different virus infections were present (BQCV, SBV, DWV, KBV and CBPV) ( Choe et al 2012) It remains unclear if some viral infections already detected in A. cerana may represent inter-specific pathogen transmission because of the widespread distribution of A. mellifera. More virus infections will be detected as molecular tools become increasingly available
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