Occurrence of deformed wing virus variants in the stingless Melipona subnitida and honey Apis mellifera bee populations in North Eastern Brazil

de Souza, FS; Kevill, JL; Correia-Oliveira, ME; de Carvalho, CAL; Martin, SJ

Abstract

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is now a global insect pathogen. Brazilian stingless bees are a diverse group often managed in close proximity to honey bees. We investigated the prevalence and load of DWV in 33 stingless bees (Melipona subnitida) and 12 honey bees (Apis mellifera) colonies from NE Brazil. DWV was detected in all colonies with the A and C-variants dominating M. subnitida and A-variant in A. mellifera. Viral loads were 8.83E+07 and 7.19E+07 in M. subnitida and A. mellifera, respectively. On Fernando de Noronha island DWV is low (<1E+03) in honey bees, but we detected high loads (1.6E+08) in nine island M. subnitida colonies, indicating no viral spill-over of DWV has occurred during the past 34 years. Furthermore, the ubiquitous presence of the DWV-C variant in M. subnitida colonies, and rarity in A. mellifera, may suggest limited viral exchange between these two species.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 30, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 10, 2019
• Deposit Date: Feb 25, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 25, 2019
• Journal: Journal of General Virology
• Print ISSN: 0022-1317
• Electronic ISSN: 1465-2099
• Publisher: Microbiology Society
• Volume: 100
• Pages: 289-294
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001206
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001206
• Related Public URLs: https://jgv.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv