Olivieri Silvia, Carisio Luca, Mogliotti Paola, Guasco Cecilia, Franzin Alberico, Garrone Annalisa, Brusa Fulvio
S.S. South Eastern Piedmont, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Alessandria, Italy.
S.S. Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Risk Analysis, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, Torino, Italy.
Vet Med Sci. 2025 May;11(3):e70343. doi: 10.1002/vms3.70343.
Honey bees are affected by several pathogens, including different RNA viruses such as Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV) and Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). Real-time PCR (RT-PCR) is a standard method to detect these viruses, but it requires the sacrifice of bees. In this study, we tested an RT-PCR method, routinely used to detect ABPV, CBPV and DWV in bees, using hive debris as an alternative non-invasive matrix to adult bees. We analysed results both at apiary and colony levels. The performances of hive debris as an alternative matrix to bees were tested by calculating sensitivity, specificity and the Kappa index using RT-PCR results on bees as reference. At apiary level, specificity was high for ABPV and DWV, whereas sensitivity was high only for DWV. At colony level, specificity was over 75% for all the three viruses, whereas test sensitivity was poor. Hive debris has the potential to be an effective alternative matrix to detect viruses on honey bees at apiary level; therefore, new research studies focused on standardization of the sampling and RNA extraction procedure are needed to develop a reliable diagnostic tool for a field application.
蜜蜂会受到多种病原体的影响，包括不同的RNA病毒，如急性蜜蜂麻痹病毒（ABPV）、慢性蜜蜂麻痹病毒（CBPV）和残翅病毒（DWV）。实时荧光定量聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）是检测这些病毒的标准方法，但它需要牺牲蜜蜂。在本研究中，我们测试了一种常用于检测蜜蜂体内ABPV、CBPV和DWV的RT-PCR方法，使用蜂巢碎片作为成年蜜蜂的一种非侵入性替代样本基质。我们在养蜂场和蜂群层面分析了结果。通过以蜜蜂的RT-PCR结果为参考计算灵敏度、特异性和kappa指数，测试了蜂巢碎片作为蜜蜂替代样本基质的性能。在养蜂场层面，ABPV和DWV的特异性较高，而仅DWV的灵敏度较高。在蜂群层面，所有三种病毒的特异性均超过75%，但检测灵敏度较差。蜂巢碎片有可能成为在养蜂场层面检测蜜蜂病毒的有效替代样本基质；因此，需要开展新的研究，重点是对采样和RNA提取程序进行标准化，以开发一种可靠的现场应用诊断工具。
