Abstract
In this short review, we present our current understanding of the role of viruses on honey bee health and address some overarching questions in honey bee virology.
Highlights
We present our current understanding of the role of viruses on honey bee health and address some overarching questions in honey bee virology
The ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor is a major vector of honey bee viruses, including Deformed wing virus (DWV), VDV-1, and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV)
The first study that examined this phenomena detected bee viruses in 11 non-Apis hymenopteran species obtained near honey bee colonies and implicated inter-species transmission by phylogenetic analyses of viral sequences, which did not cluster by host species [24]
Summary
The largest agricultural pollination event in the world occurs each February in the Central Valley of California, where nearly 80% of the world’s almonds are produced [4] This single pollination event requires that over 60% of the commercially managed honey bee colonies in the United States (~1.6 million) be transported to the California almond groves each year (Fig 1) [5]. Single-stranded positive sense RNA viruses make up the largest group of honey bee-infecting pathogens These viruses include the following: the Dicistroviruses, Israeli acute paralysis virus, Kashmir bee virus, Acute bee paralysis virus, and Black queen cell virus; the Iflaviruses, Deformed wing virus, Kakugo virus, Varroa destructor virus-1, Sacbrood virus, and Slow bee paralysis virus; and taxonomically unclassified viruses, Chronic bee paralysis virus, and the recently discovered Lake Sinai viruses, which are a phylogenetically unique, globally distributed group of viruses, including LSV1-7 and other variants (reviewed in [17,18]).
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