Honey bee aggression: evaluating causal links to disease-resistance traits and infection

Preliminary analysis shows that feral and managed honey bees in Southern California have similar levels of viral pathogens

“…In South Carolina (López-Uribe et al 2017), FHB have somewhat lower genetic diversity than MHB, though expression levels of immune response genes are positively correlated with the genetic diversity of FHB colonies. In southern California, common FHB behaviors such as increased swarming frequency, smaller colony sizes, and enhanced defensive behavior that may help ward off diseases are often attributed to admixture with the African subspecies, A. mellifera scutellata (Schneider et al 2004, Loftus et al 2016, Herb et al 2018, Carr et al 2020. Still, in other locations without such ancestry, similar behaviors can occur (Seeley et al 2015, Locke 2016, Loftus et al 2016 suggesting that feralization and natural selection may promote such beneficial behaviors even in the absence of A. mellifera scutellata ancestry.…”

The effect of Israeli acute paralysis virus infection on honey bee brood care behavior

“…Exposure to a parasite or pathogen promotes the bees’ natural hygienic response, during which honey bee workers inspect brood and remove dead, infected, or otherwise damaged individuals 53 . This is due to parasite-induced changes in the worker’s CHC profile, for example those caused by bacterial infection 54 , viral infection 17 , and Varroa parasitism 55 , which ultimately stimulate a hygienic response in the surrounding workers 54 , 56 ; infection status can also induce self-grooming 57 . Because they have been stimulated by a sublethal virus infection, the experimentally infected workers in our experiments may be more alert to the presence of a pathogen within their environment than their unexposed nestmates, priming them to perform hygienic behaviors.…”

Feral and managed honey bees,Apis mellifera(Hymenoptera: Apidae), in southern California have similar levels of viral pathogens

“…In South Carolina (López-Uribe et al 2017), FHB have somewhat lower genetic diversity than MHB, though expression levels of immune response genes are positively correlated with the genetic diversity of FHB colonies. In southern California, common FHB behaviors such as increased swarming frequency, smaller colony sizes, and enhanced defensive behavior that may help ward off diseases are often attributed to admixture with the African subspecies, A. mellifera scutellata (Schneider et al 2004, Loftus et al 2016, Herb et al 2018, Carr et al 2020. Still, in other locations without such ancestry, similar behaviors can occur (Seeley et al 2015, Locke 2016, Loftus et al 2016 suggesting that feralization and natural selection may promote such beneficial behaviors even in the absence of A.…”