Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7044, Ulls väg 16, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
Vet Parasitol. 2010 Jun 24;170(3-4):212-7. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2010.02.010. Epub 2010 Feb 18.
Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae are intracellular microsporidian parasites infecting the midgut epithelial cells of adult honey bees. N. ceranae was considered to be restricted to the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana, but is nowadays a parasite found also in the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) across most of the world. Recent surveys and experimental work suggest that N. ceranae is a serious threat to the global beekeeping industry. It has been suggested that N. ceranae induces significantly higher mortality in honey bees than N. apis, but little is known about their comparative virulence. In this study, we used in vivo infection experiments to study the two parasites' different virulence (i.e. multiplication rate and infectivity). A qPCR was developed to elucidate within host competition between the two parasites using mixed infections. The outcome of the experiments indicates minor differences in infectious dose and multiplication rate between the two species. Moreover, the mortality caused by N. ceranae was not significantly higher than for N. apis and N. ceranae appeared to have no competitive advantage within host.
蜜蜂微孢子虫（Nosema apis 和 Nosema ceranae）是感染成年蜜蜂中肠上皮细胞的细胞内微孢子虫寄生虫。N. ceranae 被认为仅限于亚洲蜜蜂（Apis cerana），但如今已成为在世界大部分地区的欧洲蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）中发现的寄生虫。最近的调查和实验工作表明，N. ceranae 对全球养蜂业构成严重威胁。有人认为，N. ceranae 导致蜜蜂死亡率明显高于 N.apis，但对它们的相对毒力知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们使用体内感染实验来研究这两种寄生虫的不同毒力（即增殖率和感染力）。开发了 qPCR 来阐明使用混合感染时两种寄生虫之间的宿主内竞争。实验结果表明，两种物种的感染剂量和增殖率差异较小。此外，N. ceranae 引起的死亡率并不明显高于 N.apis，并且 N. ceranae 在宿主内似乎没有竞争优势。
