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Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies

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...

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Autores principales: Francis, Roy M., Nielsen, Steen L., Kryger, Per
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3602523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23526946
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057540
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author Francis, Roy M.
Nielsen, Steen L.
Kryger, Per
author_facet Francis, Roy M.
Nielsen, Steen L.
Kryger, Per
author_sort Francis, Roy M.
collection PubMed
description 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 acids (11 colonies), pyrethroid (9 colonies) and untreated (3 colonies). Approximately 200 bees were sampled every month from April 2011 to October 2011, and April 2012. The 200 bees were split to 10 subsamples of 20 bees and analysed separately, which allows us to determine the prevalence of virus-infected bees. The treatment efficacy was often low for both treatments. In colonies where varroa treatment reduced the mite load, colonies overwintered successfully, allowing the mites and viruses to be carried over with the bees into the next season. In general, AKI and DWV titres did not show any notable response to the treatment and steadily increased over the season from April to October. In the untreated control group, titres increased most dramatically. Viral copies were correlated to number of varroa mites. Most colonies that collapsed over the winter had significantly higher AKI and DWV titres in October compared to survivors. Only treated colonies survived the winter. We discuss our results in relation to the varroa-virus model developed by Stephen Martin.
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spelling pubmed-36025232013-03-22 Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies Francis, Roy M. Nielsen, Steen L. Kryger, Per PLoS One Research Article 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 acids (11 colonies), pyrethroid (9 colonies) and untreated (3 colonies). Approximately 200 bees were sampled every month from April 2011 to October 2011, and April 2012. The 200 bees were split to 10 subsamples of 20 bees and analysed separately, which allows us to determine the prevalence of virus-infected bees. The treatment efficacy was often low for both treatments. In colonies where varroa treatment reduced the mite load, colonies overwintered successfully, allowing the mites and viruses to be carried over with the bees into the next season. In general, AKI and DWV titres did not show any notable response to the treatment and steadily increased over the season from April to October. In the untreated control group, titres increased most dramatically. Viral copies were correlated to number of varroa mites. Most colonies that collapsed over the winter had significantly higher AKI and DWV titres in October compared to survivors. Only treated colonies survived the winter. We discuss our results in relation to the varroa-virus model developed by Stephen Martin. Public Library of Science 2013-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC3602523/ /pubmed/23526946 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057540 Text en © 2013 Francis et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Francis, Roy M.
Nielsen, Steen L.
Kryger, Per
Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies
title Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies
title_full Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies
title_fullStr Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies
title_full_unstemmed Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies
title_short Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies
title_sort varroa-virus interaction in collapsing honey bee colonies
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3602523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23526946
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057540
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