Laboratorio de Patología Apícola, Centro de Investigación Apícola y Agroambiental (CIAPA), Instituto Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Agroalimentario y Forestal (IRIAF), Consejería de Agricultura de la Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, Marchamalo, Spain.
Facultad de Agronomía y Zootecnia de la Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Jan 28;11:823050. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.823050. eCollection 2021.
The microsporidia is an intracellular parasite of honeybees' midgut, highly prevalent in colonies for which important epidemiological information is still unknown. Our research aimed at understanding how age and season influence the onset of infection in honeybees and its development in the colony environment. Adult worker honeybees of less than 24h were marked and introduced into 6 different colonies in assays carried out in spring and autumn. Bees of known age were individually analyzed by PCR for spp. infection and those resulting positive were studied to determine the load by Real Time-qPCR. The age of onset and development of infection in each season was studied on a total of 2401 bees and the probability and the load of infection for both periods was established with two statistical models. First infected honeybees were detected at day 5 post emergence (p.e.; spring) and at day 4 p.e. (autumn) and in-hive prevalence increased from that point onwards, reaching the highest mean infection on day 18 p.e. (spring). The probability of infection increased significantly with age in both periods although the age variable better correlated in spring. The load tended to increase with age in both periods, although the age-load relationship was clearer in spring than in autumn. Therefore, age and season play an important role on the probability and the development of infection in honeybees, bringing important information to understand how it spreads within a colony.
微孢子虫是一种寄生在蜜蜂中肠的细胞内寄生虫，在蜂群中高度流行，但对于其重要的流行病学信息仍然知之甚少。我们的研究旨在了解年龄和季节如何影响蜜蜂感染的发生及其在群体环境中的发展。将 24 小时龄以下的成年工蜂进行标记并引入到 6 个不同的蜂群中，在春季和秋季进行实验。通过 PCR 对具有已知年龄的蜜蜂进行 spp. 感染分析，对呈阳性的个体进行研究以确定实时 qPCR 的载量。总共对 2401 只蜜蜂进行了每个季节的发病年龄和感染发展研究，并使用两个统计模型确定了两个时期的感染概率和感染载量。在春季，首次检测到感染的蜜蜂是在出房后第 5 天（p.e.），在秋季则是在第 4 天（p.e.），此后巢内的流行率开始增加，在出房后第 18 天达到最高平均感染水平。在两个时期，感染的概率都随着年龄的增加而显著增加，尽管在春季，年龄变量的相关性更好。在两个时期，载量都随着年龄的增加而增加，但春季的年龄-载量关系比秋季更清晰。因此，年龄和季节对蜜蜂感染的概率和发展起着重要作用，为了解其在蜂群中的传播方式提供了重要信息。
