Deformed wing virus prevalence and load in honeybees in South Africa

de Souza, FS; Allsopp, MH; Martin, SJ

Abstract

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is an emerging honeybee pathogen that has appeared across the globe in the past 40 years.
When transmitted by the parasitic varroa mite, it has been associated with the collapse of millions of colonies throughout the
Northern Hemisphere. However, despite the presence of the mite in the Southern Hemisphere, infested colonies survive. This
study investigated the prevalence of DWV genotypes A, B and C along with their viral loads in South Africa and compared
the fndings with recent data from Brazil, the UK and the USA. We found that DWV-B was the most prevalent genotype
throughout South Africa, although the total DWV viral load was signifcantly lower (2.8E+07) than found in the Northern
Hemisphere (2.8E+07 vs. 2.7E+10, p > 0.00001) and not signifcantly diferent to that found in Brazil (5E+06, p = 0.13).
The diferences in viral load can be explained by the mite resistance in Brazil and South Africa, since mite-infested cells
containing high viral loads are removed by the bees, thus lowering the colony’s viral burden. This behaviour is much less
developed in the vast majority of honeybees in the Northern Hemisphere.

Citation

de Souza, F., Allsopp, M., & Martin, S. (2021). Deformed wing virus prevalence and load in honeybees in South Africa. Archives of Virology, 166, 237-241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-020-04863-5

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 16, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Nov 2, 2020
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Nov 5, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 5, 2020
• Journal: Archives of Virology
• Print ISSN: 0304-8608
• Electronic ISSN: 1432-8798
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Volume: 166
• Pages: 237-241
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-020-04863-5
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-020-04863-5
• Related Public URLs: http://link.springer.com/journal/705
• Additional Information: Funders : Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq); Grant Number: 208427/2017-1