Honeybees have evolved a social immunity consisting of the cooperation of individuals to decrease disease in the hive. We identified a set of genes involved in this social immunity by analysing the brain transcriptome of highly varroa-hygienic bees, who efficiently detect and remove brood infected with the Varroa destructor mite. The function of these candidate genes does not seem to support a ...

Pathogens and parasites may facilitate their transmission by manipulating host behavior. Honeybee pathogens and pests need to be transferred from one colony to another if they are to maintain themselves in a host population. Inter-colony transmission occurs typically through honeybee workers not returning to their home colony but entering a foreign colony ("drifting"). Pathogens might enhance d...

Varroa mites and viruses are the currently the high-profile suspects in collapsing bee colonies. Therefore, seasonal variation in varroa load and viruses (Acute-Kashmir-Israeli complex (AKI) and Deformed Wing Virus (DWV)) were monitored in a year-long study. We investigated the viral titres in honey bees and varroa mites from 23 colonies (15 apiaries) under three treatment conditions: Organic a...

Varroa destructor infestation of Apis mellifera colonies carries and/or promotes replication of honey bee viruses like the Deformed wing virus, the Varroa destructor virus-1, the Acute bee paralysis virus, the Israeli acute bee paralysis virus and the Kashmir bee virus that have been well described and characterized; but viruses exclusively associated with Varroa were not found. To look for vir...

Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies of African and European descent were compared for levels of Varroa destructor infestation in 3 different ecological regions in Mexico. The 300 colonies that were studied were located in subtropical, temperate sub-humid, and temperate dry climates. The morphotype and mitotype of adult bees as well as their rates of infestation by varroa mites were determined. ...

Towards integrated control of varroa: effect of variation in hygienic behaviour among honey bee colonies on mite population increase and deformed wing virus incidence Hasan M Al Toufailia , Esmaeil Amiri, Luciano Scandian, Per Kryger, Francis L W Ratnieks Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QG, UK. Department of Agroecology, Å...

Varroa destructor continues to threaten colonies of European honey bees. General hygiene, and more specific Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH), provide resistance towards the Varroa mite in a number of stocks. In this study, 32 Russian (RHB) and 14 Italian honey bee colonies were assessed for the VSH trait using two different assays. Firstly, colonies were assessed using the standard VSH behavioura...

Introduction Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (2000) is an ectoparasitic mite which causes severe damage to Apis mellifera populations worldwide. Adult females of V. destructor feed directly on the haemolymph of honey bee pupae and can activate and transmit honeybee viruses. Infestation causes an increased prevalence of bee diseases and colony mortality, resulting in decline of honey produc...

Varroa destructor is a ubiquitous and parasitic mite of honey bees, infecting them with pathogenic viruses having a major impact on apiculture. We identified two novel circular replication-associated protein (Rep)-encoding single-stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses from V. destructor sampled from a honey bee hive near Christchurch in New Zealand.

Varroa destructor (Anderson and Truman) trapped on bottom boards were assessed as indirect measurements of colony mite populations and mite fall in colonies of Russian and Italian honey bees using 29 candidate measurements. Measurements included damaged and nondamaged younger mites, damaged and nondamaged older mites, fresh mites and all mites, each as a proportion of total mites in the colonie...