Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
ADFCA, Research and Development Division, Al Ain, UAE.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jul 31;7(1):6925. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-07290-w.
Honeybee (Apis mellifera) health is threatened globally by the complex interaction of multiple stressors, including the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and a number of pathogenic viruses. Australia provides a unique opportunity to study this pathogenic viral landscape in the absence of V. destructor. We analysed 1,240A. mellifera colonies across Australia by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS). Five viruses were prevalent: black queen cell virus (BQCV), sacbrood virus (SBV), Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) and the Lake Sinai viruses (LSV1 and LSV2), of which the latter three were detected for the first time in Australia. We also showed several viruses were absent in our sampling, including deformed wing virus (DWV) and slow bee paralysis virus (SBPV). Our findings highlight that viruses can be highly prevalent in A. mellifera populations independently of V. destructor. Placing these results in an international context, our results support the hypothesis that the co-pathogenic interaction of V. destructor and DWV is a key driver of increased colony losses, but additional stressors such as pesticides, poor nutrition, etc. may enable more severe and frequent colony losses to occur.
蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）的健康受到多种压力因素的复杂影响，包括寄生螨瓦螨（Varroa destructor）和多种致病性病毒的威胁，在全球范围内受到威胁。澳大利亚为研究没有瓦螨的情况下这种致病性病毒的情况提供了一个独特的机会。我们通过反转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）和下一代测序（NGS）对澳大利亚的 1240 个蜜蜂群进行了分析。五种病毒普遍存在：黑皇后细胞病毒（BQCV）、囊状幼虫病病毒（SBV）、以色列急性麻痹病毒（IAPV）和西湖病毒（LSV1 和 LSV2），其中后三种病毒是在澳大利亚首次检测到的。我们还发现我们的采样中存在几种缺失的病毒，包括变形翅膀病毒（DWV）和慢性麻痹病毒（SBPV）。我们的研究结果表明，病毒在没有瓦螨的情况下也可以在蜜蜂种群中高度流行。将这些结果置于国际背景下，我们的结果支持了这样一种假设，即瓦螨和 DWV 的共病原体相互作用是导致蜂群损失增加的关键因素，但其他压力因素，如杀虫剂、营养不良等，可能会导致更严重和频繁的蜂群损失。
