Nosema ceranae disease of the honey bee (Apis mellifera)

Goblirsch, Mike

doi:10.1007/s13592-017-0535-1

Cited by 89 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 182 publications

(239 reference statements)

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“…While N. ceranae was ubiquitous in the study population, the inherently native species N. apis was only present in 1% of the bees, and exclusively in mixed infections with N. ceranae. This is in line with the previous finding that N. ceranae is replacing N. apis (Goblirsch, 2018;Paxton, Julia, Seppo, & Ingemar, 2007); however, its large prevalence and high concentrations in healthy, well-performing colonies argue against the suspicion that N. ceranae, by itself, could be more virulent than N. apis (Higes, Garcia-Palencia, Martin-Hernandez, & Aranzazu, 2007;Paxton et al, 2007). It should be pointed out that since all of our measurements were done on RNA level, the reported concentrations of the organisms with a DNA genome (i.e., all bacteria and parasites) are not directly comparable to those reported in other studies from measurements on DNA level and give an indication of metabolic activity rather than cell numbers.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Seasonal dynamics and co‐occurrence patterns of honey bee pathogens revealed by high‐throughput RT‐qPCR analysis

D’Alvise

Seeburger

Gihring

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The health of the honey bee Apis mellifera is challenged by introduced parasites that interact with its inherent pathogens and cause elevated rates of colony losses. To elucidate co‐occurrence, population dynamics, and synergistic interactions of honey bee pathogens, we established an array of diagnostic assays for a high‐throughput qPCR platform. Assuming that interaction of pathogens requires co‐occurrence within the same individual, single worker bees were analyzed instead of collective samples. Eleven viruses, four parasites, and three pathogenic bacteria were quantified in more than one thousand single bees sampled from sixteen disease‐free apiaries in Southwest Germany. The most abundant viruses were black queen cell virus (84%), Lake Sinai virus 1 (42%), and deformed wing virus B (35%). Forager bees from asymptomatic colonies were infected with two different viruses in average, and simultaneous infection with four to six viruses was common (14%). Also, the intestinal parasites Nosema ceranae (96%) and Crithidia mellificae/Lotmaria passim (52%) occurred very frequently. These results indicate that low‐level infections in honey bees are more common than previously assumed. All viruses showed seasonal variation, while N. ceranae did not. The foulbrood bacteria Paenibacillus larvae and Melissococcus plutonius were regionally distributed. Spearman's correlations and multiple regression analysis indicated possible synergistic interactions between the common pathogens, particularly for black queen cell virus. Beyond its suitability for further studies on honeybees, this targeted approach may be, due to its precision, capacity, and flexibility, a viable alternative to more expensive, sequencing‐based approaches in nonmodel systems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Seasonal dynamics and co‐occurrence patterns of honey bee pathogens revealed by high‐throughput RT‐qPCR analysis

D’Alvise

Seeburger

Gihring

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…resulted in interactive effects on performance of survival of individual bees (Alaux et al 2010, Pettis et al 2013) (but see Goblirsch [2018] for an overview), we found no interactive effects of exposure to imidacloprid and Nosema spp. resulted in interactive effects on performance of survival of individual bees (Alaux et al 2010, Pettis et al 2013) (but see Goblirsch [2018] for an overview), we found no interactive effects of exposure to imidacloprid and Nosema spp.…”

Section: Interactive Effectsmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…Although previously exposures to neonicotinoids and Nosema spp. resulted in interactive effects on performance of survival of individual bees (Alaux et al 2010, Pettis et al 2013) (but see Goblirsch [2018] for an overview), we found no interactive effects of exposure to imidacloprid and Nosema spp. at the exposure and measurement levels in this field-realistic study.…”

Section: Interactive Effectsmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…The damage at colony level includes lower reproductive capacity and increased colony mortality (Genersch et al 2010, Rosenkranz et al 2010, Van Dooremalen et al 2012, Nazzi and Le Conte 2016. The roles of neonicotinoid insecticides (Blacqui ere et al 2012, Godfray et al 2015, Tsvetkov et al 2017, Woodcock et al 2017 or the endoparasite Nosema ceranae (Fries et al 2013, Goblirsch 2018 in causing high colony losses remain debated. Recent studies show it is unlikely that field-realistic, sublethal doses of neonicotinoid insecticides (Dively et al 2015, Rundl€ of et al 2015, Woodcock et al 2017 or infestations with N. ceranae (Fern andez et al 2012, Van der Zee et al 2015) are the sole cause of colony losses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Single and interactive effects of Varroa destructor, Nosema spp., and imidacloprid on honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera)

et al. 2018

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Citation: van Dooremalen, C., B. Cornelissen, C. Poleij-Hok-Ahin, and T. Blacqui ere. 2018. Single and interactive effects of Varroa destructor, Nosema spp., and imidacloprid on honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera). Ecosphere 9(8):Abstract. High losses of honey bee colonies in recent decades are of great societal and economical concern and experienced as a sign of the vulnerability of the environment, including the service of crop pollination, and of the beekeeping sector. There is no single cause for the colony losses, but many contributing stressors may act in concert. Varroa destructor infestation is acknowledged as an important cause of these losses. The roles of infestation by Nosema ceranae or exposure to insecticides are controversial. Interactions between exposure to pesticides and V. destructor or Nosema spp. have previously been implicated. In two years of field experiments, we studied the effects of and possible interactions between the stressors V. destructor infestation, Nosema spp. infestation, and chronic sublethal exposure to a field-realistic dose of the insecticide imidacloprid on the performance and survival of honey bee colonies. Colonies highly infested by V. destructor were 13% smaller in size and were 59.1 times more likely to die than colonies infested with low levels of V. destructor. Infestation with high levels of Nosema sp. led to 2% decrease in size and 1.4 times higher likelihood to die compared to colonies with low levels of Nosema sp. No effects of chronic sublethal exposure to imidacloprid on colony size or survival were found in this study. Exposure to V. destructor and imidacloprid led to a slightly higher fraction of bees infested with Nosema sp., but in contrast to the expectations, no resulting interactions were found for colony size or survival. Colonies as a superorganism may well be able to compensate at the colony level for sublethal negative effects of stressors on their individuals. In our experimental study under field-realistic exposure to stressors, V. destructor was by far the most lethal one for honey bee colonies.

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“…with adverse consequences for their hosts [23,24]. Ingested N. ceranae spores germinate in the bee midgut, penetrate host cells and produce additional spores within 48-96 h that either infect adjacent cells or are passed in the faeces [25]. Viable spores may then be consumed during cleaning or grooming, and some are left behind on the flower after an infected bee visits [21,22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathogen spillover from Apis mellifera to a stingless bee

Purkiss

Lach

2019

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Pathogen spillover from managed bees is increasingly considered as a possible cause of pollinator decline. Though spillover has been frequently documented, evidence of the pathogen's virulence in the new host or mechanism of transmission is rare. Stingless bees (Apocrita: Meliponini) are crucial pollinators pan-tropically and overlap with managed honeybees (Apis mellifera) in much of their range. Nosema ceranae is the most prevalent disease of adult A. mellifera. We used laboratory experiments and field surveys to investigate the susceptibility of stingless bees (Tetragonula hockingsi) to N. ceranae, infection prevalence and transmissibility via flowers. We found that 67% of T. hockingsi fed sucrose with N. ceranae had detectable spores in their ventriculus, and they died at 2.96 times the rate of sucroseonly fed bees. Five of six field hives harboured bees with N. ceranae present at least once during our five-month survey, with prevalence up to 20%. In our floral transmission experiment, 67% of inflorescences exposed to infected A. mellifera yielded N. ceranae spores, and all resulted in T. hockingsi with N. ceranae spores in their guts. We conclude that N. ceranae is virulent in T. hockingsi under laboratory conditions, is common in the local T. hockingsi population and is transmissible via flowers.

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Nosema ceranae disease of the honey bee (Apis mellifera)

Cited by 89 publications

References 182 publications

Seasonal dynamics and co‐occurrence patterns of honey bee pathogens revealed by high‐throughput RT‐qPCR analysis

Seasonal dynamics and co‐occurrence patterns of honey bee pathogens revealed by high‐throughput RT‐qPCR analysis

Single and interactive effects of Varroa destructor, Nosema spp., and imidacloprid on honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera)

Pathogen spillover from Apis mellifera to a stingless bee

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