Honey bee societies (Apis mellifera), the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, and honey bee viruses that are vectored by the mite, form a complex system of host-parasite interactions. Coevolution by natural selection in this system has been hindered for European honey bee hosts since apicultural practices remove the mite and consequently the selective pressures required for such a process. An...

Pollination is critical for food production and has the particularity of linking natural ecosystems with agricultural production systems. Recently, losses of bumblebee species have been reported worldwide. In this study, samples from a commercial exploitation of bumblebees of Argentina with a recent history of deaths were studied using a multiplex PCR for the detection of the honey bee viruses ...

honey is a by-product of flower nectar and the upper aero-digestive tract of the honey bee, which is concentrated through a dehydration process inside the bee hive. honey has a very complex chemical composition that varies depending on the botanical source. it has been used both as food and medicine since ancient times. human use of honey is traced to some 8000 years ago as depicted by stone ag...

Sacbrood virus (SBV) is a picorna-like virus that affects honey bees (Apis mellifera) and results in the death of the larvae. Several procedures are available to detect Chinese SBV (CSBV) in clinical samples, but not to estimate the level of CSBV infection. The aim of this study was develop an assay for rapid detection and quantification of this virus. Primers and probes were designed that were...

Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) is an unclassified polymorphic single-stranded RNA virus. Among the viruses infecting honeybees, CBPV is known to induce significant losses in honeybee colonies. In this study, a total number of eighty-nine suspected apiaries from four regions of Iran (including Mazandaran, Khorasan Razavi, Hormozgan, and Kurdistan) were sampled and submitted for molecular ide...

We have cloned and sequenced a 2845 bp cDNA representing the 3'-end of either a new picorna-like virus species or genotype of Solenopsis invicta virus-1 (SINV-1). Analysis of the nucleotide sequence revealed 1 large open reading frame. The amino acid sequence of the translated open reading frame was most identical to structural proteins of SINV-1 (97%), followed by the Kashmir bee virus (KBV, 3...

Over the past fifty years, annual honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony losses have been steadily increasing worldwide. These losses have occurred in parallel with the global spread of the honeybee parasite Varroa destructor. Indeed, Varroa mite infestations are considered to be a key explanatory factor for the widespread increase in annual honeybee colony mortality. The host-parasite relationship b...

Several studies have suggested that covert stressors can contribute to bee colony declines. Here we provide a novel case study and show using radiofrequency identification tracking technology that covert deformed wing virus (DWV) infections in adult honeybee workers seriously impact long-term foraging and survival under natural foraging conditions. In particular, our experiments show that adult...

BACKGROUND In 2010 Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), again devastated honey bee colonies in the USA, indicating that the problem is neither diminishing nor has it been resolved. Many CCD investigations, using sensitive genome-based methods, have found small RNA bee viruses and the microsporidia, Nosema apis and N. ceranae in healthy and collapsing colonies alike with no single pathogen firmly lin...