The health and vigour of honeybee colonies are threatened by numerous parasites (such as Varroa destructor and Nosema spp.) and pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, protozoa. Among honeybee pathogens, viruses are one of the major threats to the health and well-being of honeybees and cause serious concern for researchers and beekeepers. To tone down the threats posed by these invasive organisms, a better understanding of bee viral infections will be of crucial importance in developing effective and environmentally benign disease control strategies. Here we summarize recent progress in the understanding of the morphology, genome organization, transmission, epidemiology and pathogenesis of eight honeybee viruses: Deformed wing virus (DWV) and Kakugo virus (KV); Sacbrood virus (SBV); Black Queen cell virus (BQCV); Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV); Kashmir bee virus (KBV); Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV); Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV). The review has been designed to provide researchers in the field with updated information about honeybee viruses and to serve as a starting point for future research.

Unlike the original canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2), CPV-2 variants have gained the ability to replicate in vivo in cats but there is limited information on the disease patterns induced by these variants in the feline host. During 2008, two distinct cases of parvoviral infection were diagnosed in our laboratories. A CPV-2a variant was identified in a 3-month-old Persian kitten displaying clinical sign of feline panleukopenia (FPL) (acute gastroenteritis and marked leukopenia) and oral ulcerations, that died eight days after the onset of the disease. Two pups living in the same pet shop as the cat were found to shed a CPV-2a strain genetically identical to the feline virus and were likely the source of infection. Also, non-fatal infection by a CPV-2c strain occurred in a 2.5-month-old European shorthair kitten displaying non-haemorrhagic diarrhoea and normal white blood cell counts. By sequence analysis of the major capsid protein (VP2) gene, the feline CPV-2c strain showed 100% identity to a recent canine type-2c isolate. Both kittens had been administered multivalent vaccines against common feline pathogens including FPL virus. Whether and to which extent the FPL vaccines can protect cats adequately from the antigenic variants of CPV-2 should be assessed.

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The genes encoding the glycoprotein VP7, the VP8* trypsin-cleavage product of the protein VP4, a fragment of the protein VP6 associated with subgroup (SG) specificity, and the enterotoxin NSP4 of rotavirus strains identified in diarrheic fecal samples of rabbits in Italy were sequenced. The Italian lapine rotavirus (LRV) strains possessed a G3 VP7, SG I VP6, and KUN-like NSP4, a gene constellation typical of LRVs. One LRV strain (30/96), isolated in 1996, shared the closest amino acid (aa) identity (87-96%) with the P[14] genotype, composed of human and LRV strains. Conversely, three LRV strains (160/01, 229/01, and 308/01), identified in 2001, were highly identical (90-95%) among each other, but showed low aa identity (34-77%) to the VP8* genotype-specific sequences of representative rotavirus strains of all remaining P genotypes. This report confirms the worldwide genetic constellations of LRVs and identifies a novel VP4 genotype in rabbits, tentatively proposed as genotype P[22].

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