Occurrence of pathogenic viruses in Africanized honey bees in Brazil

Abstract

Approximately 72 pathogenic viruses have been described affecting the health of Apis mellifera colonies around the world, causing weakening and mortality of honey bees. The presence of viruses in Africanized honey bees (AHB) in Brazil is poorly studied and there is a lack of information about the occurrence of these viruses in the country. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of pathogenic viruses in AHB in Brazil. A total of 84 A. mellifera colonies from apiaries located in 15 different Brazilian states were evaluated to detect seven viral species (DWV, BQCV, IAPV, ABPV, CBPV, KBV, and SBV) by molecular analysis. We confirmed the presence of five viruses in 75% of our samples. The viruses with the highest prevalence were ABPV and IAPV, which occurred as single (20%) and multiple viral infections (80%). Multiple viral infections were present in all Brazilian states evaluated. Thus, pathogenic viruses in AHB are widely distributed in Brazil and therefore, frequent monitoring and appropriate colony management in Brazil might be important actions to prevent weakening and colony loss in Africanized honey bees.

Keywords:

• Apis mellifera
• Bee health
• Multiple viral infections
• DWV
• IAPV
• ABPV
• BQCV
• CBPV

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the “Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)” for funding via Special Visiting Researcher - PVE (400425/2014-9), Universal Call MCTI/CNPq (01/2016), and PQ fellowship for C.A.L.C. (305228/2013-7), PDJ fellowship (150135/2016-5 and 150731/2017-5) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES - BEX 9509-13-5) for M.E.C.O fellowships. Also, we thank the beekeepers for sending the honey bees to this study. The Africanized honey bees were collected under “Sistema de Autorização e Informação em Biodiversidade (SISBIO)” license number 50467 and 55056.