Mehmood Shahid, Palmer-Young Evan, Huang Wei-Fone
College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia; Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650000, China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
ARS, USDA, Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
J Invertebr Pathol. 2023 Nov;201:108005. doi: 10.1016/j.jip.2023.108005. Epub 2023 Oct 13.
Viral diseases are a significant challenge in beekeeping, and recent studies have unveiled a potential link between these diseases and the yellow-legged hornets (Vespa velutina), notorious predators of honey bees. However, it remains unclear whether virus diseases are commonly shared between honey bees and hornets or are merely sporadic cross-species transmission events. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a study utilizing hornet-keeping practices in Yunnan, Southwest China. Our findings demonstrate that deformed wing virus (DWV-A) and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) can be transmitted from honey bees to yellow-legged hornets. We detected virus replication in various hornet stages, including pupae with IAPV infections, indicating the similarities between infected hornet and honey bee stages. Furthermore, we observed signs and infection intensities of DWV-A and IAPV comparable to those in honey bees. While different polymorphisms were found in the virus isolates from yellow-legged hornets, the sequences remain similar to honey bee counterparts. While our findings suggest that DWV-A and IAPV behave like common diseases, we observed a natural elimination of the viruses in hornet colonies, with minimal alterations in viral sequences. Consequently, these events appear to be cross-species transmission from honey bees, with yellow-legged hornets acting as potential incidental hosts. Further investigations of virus monitoring in hornets promise valuable insights into the disease ecology of bee-infecting viruses.
病毒性疾病是养蜂业面临的一项重大挑战，最近的研究揭示了这些疾病与黄脚胡蜂（Vespa velutina）之间的潜在联系，黄脚胡蜂是臭名昭著的蜜蜂捕食者。然而，尚不清楚病毒疾病是在蜜蜂和胡蜂之间普遍传播，还是仅仅是偶发的跨物种传播事件。为了填补这一知识空白，我们利用中国西南部云南省的胡蜂养殖实践开展了一项研究。我们的研究结果表明，残翅病毒（DWV-A）和以色列急性麻痹病毒（IAPV）可以从蜜蜂传播到黄脚胡蜂。我们在胡蜂的各个阶段检测到了病毒复制，包括感染IAPV的蛹，这表明受感染的胡蜂和蜜蜂阶段存在相似之处。此外，我们观察到DWV-A和IAPV的症状及感染强度与蜜蜂中的情况相当。虽然从黄脚胡蜂分离出的病毒株存在不同的多态性，但其序列仍与蜜蜂的对应序列相似。虽然我们的研究结果表明DWV-A和IAPV表现得像常见疾病，但我们观察到胡蜂蜂群中的病毒会自然清除，病毒序列变化极小。因此，这些事件似乎是从蜜蜂进行的跨物种传播，黄脚胡蜂充当了潜在的偶然宿主。对胡蜂病毒监测的进一步研究有望为感染蜜蜂的病毒的疾病生态学提供有价值的见解。
