Short Communication
Occurrence of multiple honeybee viruses in the ectoparasitic mites Varroa spp. in Apis cerana colonies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jip.2019.107225Get rights and content

Highlights

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    Viruses were surveyed in Varroa destructor and Varroa underwoodi in Apis cerana colonies.

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    Six RNA viruses were detected in V. destructor while five in V. underwoodi.

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    Apis mellifera filamentous virus was found in both V. destructor and V. underwoodi.

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    Multiple viruses in single ectoparasitic mite of A. cerana are common.

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the prevalence of honeybee viruses in Varroa destructor and Varroa underwoodi infesting Apis cerana colonies in China. Deformed wing virus (DWV) was the most prevalent virus in these two mite species, followed by Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), Black queen cell virus (BQCV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV), Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), Apis mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV) and Sacbrood virus (SBV) in V. destructor, while in V. underwoodi, it was followed by CBPV, AmFV, BQCV, IAPV and KBV. In addition, multiple viruses were commonly detectable in both mite species.

Introduction

Honeybees play important roles in agriculture and natural ecosystems (Potts et al., 2016). The Western honeybee, Apis mellifera, and the Eastern honeybee, Apis cerana, are the two most important honeybee species for the beekeeping industry and share many common foraging habitats in China (Li et al., 2012). Honeybees are vulnerable to a great diversity of pathogens and parasites (Genersch, 2010) and, as reported so far, the viruses are considered to be one of the major risk factors for bee health (Tantillo et al., 2015).

More than 30 honeybee viruses have been identified worldwide (Remnant et al., 2017), eight of which are widely detected in honeybee colonies. These include deformed wing virus (DWV), black queen cell virus (BQCV), chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), sacbrood virus (SBV), acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and Varroa destructor virus-1 (VDV-1). Compared to RNA viruses, fewer studies on DNA viruses have been conducted in honeybees. A DNA virus, Apis mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV), was first reported in USA (Clark 1978) and was related to the loss of Swiss honeybee colonies (Hartmann et al., 2015). Recently, it was also detected in A. cerana and A. mellifera colonies in China (Hou et al., 2016, Hou et al., 2017).

An ectoparasitic mite of honeybees, Varroa destructor, shifted host from A. cerana to A. mellifera with catastrophic consequences globally. In addition, Varroa underwoodi is widely distributed in Asian A. cerana colonies and is a potential threat to A. mellifera (Wang et al., 2019). V. destructor has been shown to be an effective vector of honeybee viruses in A. mellifera colonies (de Miranda et al., 2010, Di Prisco et al., 2011); for example, DWV infection is tightly associated with V. destructor infestation on A. mellifera (Wilfert et al., 2016). However, little is known about the effects of Varroa spp. on their original hosts, A. cerana, especially concerning the potential synergistic effects of virus infection and Varroa spp. infestation. In this study, we conducted the first investigation on the occurrence of DNA and RNA viruses in V. destructor and V. underwoodi mites collected from A. cerana colonies.

Section snippets

Sample collection

V. destructor samples (N = 95) were collected from six apiaries in Zhejiang Province of East China, one in Jilin Province of North China and one in Guangdong Province of South China. V. underwoodi samples (N = 34) were collected from two apiaries in Zhejiang Province, one in Jilin Province and one in Jiangxi Province of East China during March 2016–June 2019. The mites were collected from A. cerana sealed drone brood cells (Wang et al., 2019) in multiple colonies and stored separately in

Results and discussion

Seven RNA viruses (ABPV, BQCV, CBPV, DWV, IAPV, KBV and SBV) were previously detected in A. cerana colonies in Asia (Kojima et al., 2011, Ai et al., 2012, Choe et al., 2012, Li et al., 2012, Yañez et al., 2015, Thu et al., 2016, Chanpanitkitchote et al., 2018). We found that six of the viruses (except ABPV) were detected in V. destructor and five (all but ABPV and SBV) were detected in V. underwoodi infesting A. cerana colonies (Table 1). VDV-1 was not found in either mite species. BQCV was

Conclusions

We investigated the presence of the eight RNA viruses and one DNA honeybee virus in Varroa spp. collected from A. cerana colonies. DWV, IAPV, BQCV, KBV, CBPV, SBV and AmFV were detected in V. destructor and DWV, CBPV, AmFV, BQCV, IAPV and KBV were detected in V. underwoodi. The high occurrence of honeybee viruses in the two species of Varroa mites suggested that the mites, despite a low infestation rate in A. cerana colonies, act as vectors of honeybee viruses and may affect the health of A.

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31672498, H.Z.), Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province, China (2016C02054-11, F.H.) and the Modern Agroindustry Technology Research System of China (CARS-44, F.H. and H.Z.).

Declaration of Competing Interest

None.

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