Department of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, La Trobe Institute of Molecular Science, La Trobe University, PO Box 199, Bendigo, Victoria 3552, Australia.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Clunes Ross Street, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia.
J Invertebr Pathol. 2021 Mar;180:107540. doi: 10.1016/j.jip.2021.107540. Epub 2021 Jan 29.
Chalkbrood infection caused by the fungus Ascosphaera apis currently has a significant impact on Australia's apicultural industry. We investigated the genetic variation of A. apis and colony and apiary level conditions to determine if an emerging, more virulent strain or specific conditions were responsible for the prevalence of the disease. We identified six genetically distinct strains of A. apis, four have been reported elsewhere and two are unique to Australia. Colonies and individual larvae were found to be infected with multiple strains of A. apis, neither individual strains, combinations of strains, or obvious colony or apiary characteristics were found to be predictive of hive infection levels. These results suggest that host genotype plays an important role in colony level resistance to chalkbrood infection in Australia.
粉孢子病感染由真菌 Ascosphaera apis 引起，目前对澳大利亚的养蜂业有重大影响。我们调查了 A.apis 的遗传变异和蜂群及蜂场水平条件，以确定是否是新兴的、更具毒性的菌株或特定条件导致了疾病的流行。我们确定了六种具有遗传差异的 A.apis 菌株，其中四种在其他地方有报道，两种仅在澳大利亚发现。发现蜂群和单个幼虫同时感染了多种 A.apis 菌株，没有发现单个菌株、菌株组合或明显的蜂群或蜂场特征与蜂箱感染水平相关。这些结果表明，宿主基因型在澳大利亚对粉孢子病感染的群体水平抗性中起重要作用。
