Honey Bee Virus Transmission via Hive Products.

Schittny, Dominik; Yañez, Orlando; Neumann, Peter (2020). Honey Bee Virus Transmission via Hive Products. Veterinary sciences, 7(3) MDPI 10.3390/vetsci7030096

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The global trade of honey bee hive products has raised concern about pathogen transmission. However, the efficacy of hive products as virus vehicles is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the transmission capacity of hive products for Deformed wing virus genotype A (DWV-A) in a fully-crossed hoarding cage experiment and estimated the transmission risk by screening commercial products. Western honey bee workers were provided with honey, pollen and wax either contaminated with high (~2 × 109), medium (~1.7 × 108), low (~8 × 106) or zero (control) DWV-A genome copies. For 10 days, mortality was monitored. Then, virus titers were quantified in bee heads and 38 commercial products using RT-qPCR. For honey and pollen, a positive association between DWV-A concentration and mortality was observed. High concentrations always resulted in infections, medium ones in 47% of cases and low ones in 20% of cases. No significant difference was observed between the tested products. In commercial honey and pollen, 7.7 × 102-1.8 × 105 and 1.4 × 103-1.3 × 104 DWV-A copies per gram were found, respectively. The results show that DWV-A transmission via hive products is feasible. The risk of introducing novel viruses and/or strains should be considered in trade regulations by including virus analyses for health certificates of hive products.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute of Anatomy
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Institute of Bee Health

UniBE Contributor:

Schittny, Dominik Christian, Yanez Amayo, Victor Orlando, Neumann, Peter (B)

Subjects:

500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)
600 Technology > 630 Agriculture

ISSN:

2306-7381

Publisher:

MDPI

Language:

English

Submitter:

Johannes Schittny

Date Deposited:

09 Oct 2020 17:12

Last Modified:

29 Mar 2023 23:37

Publisher DOI:

10.3390/vetsci7030096

PubMed ID:

32708256

Uncontrolled Keywords:

DWV-A hive products honey honey bee pollen virus wax

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.146907

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/146907

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