Prevalence and infection intensity of Nosema in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies in Virginia

Traver, Brenna E.; Fell, Richard D.

doi:10.1016/j.jip.2011.02.003

Cited by 89 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…N. apis causes nosemosis (type A), the clinical outbreak which is characterized mainly by dysentery, whereas, N. ceranae causes death of individuals and colonies without any visible symptoms (Higes et al, 2008). However, Traver, and Fell (2011) found no significant correlation between Nosema infection and colony strength even the infection prevalence of N. ceranae was 69.3%. Thus, Nosema has not been found responsible for loss of honey bees in all the cases.…”

Section: ) European Foulbroodmentioning

confidence: 92%

Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) and Pollination Issues: Current status, impacts and potential drivers of decline

Paudel¹,

Mackereth²,

Hanley³

et al. 2015

JAS

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European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are important pollinators of many fruits, nuts, vegetables and field crops. Honey bees also pollinate different wild flowering plants and help to maintain the ecosystems. Currently, these pollinators are facing a number of threats including habitat destruction, pesticides, mites, parasites and loss of genetic diversity. Because of the decline in their number, there is a great loss of ecological services which impacts the world's economy. This review of honey bee and pollination issues highlights the need of protection and conservation of these important pollinators. Research is required to quantify the synergistic effects of potential drivers for current colony loss and to identify the ecotypes and native species of honey bees which are more resistant to pests, pathogens and pesticides.

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Section: ) European Foulbroodmentioning

confidence: 92%

Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) and Pollination Issues: Current status, impacts and potential drivers of decline

Paudel¹,

Mackereth²,

Hanley³

et al. 2015

JAS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Studies from central Spain suggest much less variation in infection prevalence over the season for N. ceranae compared to what has been described for N. apis (Higes et al, 2008a). However, a clear seasonal effect on disease prevalence, with higher prevalence and infection levels in the early season has been documented in eastern USA (Traver and Fell, 2011;Traver et al, 2012) and in untreated colonies in maritime Canada (Williams et al, 2010;. There is an urgent need for long-term studies of the temporal dynamics of N. ceranae infections under different climatic conditions.…”

Section: Colony Level Infection Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Standard methods forNosemaresearch

Fries

Chauzat²,

Chen³

et al. 2013

Journal of Apicultural Research

328

302

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SummaryMethods are described for working with Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae in the field and in the laboratory. For fieldwork, different sampling methods are described to determine colony level infections at a given point in time, but also for following the temporal infection dynamics.Suggestions are made for how to standardise field trials for evaluating treatments and disease impact. The laboratory methods described include different means for determining colony level and individual bee infection levels and methods for species determination, including light microscopy, electron microscopy, and molecular methods (PCR). Suggestions are made for how to standardise cage trials, and different inoculation methods for infecting bees are described, including control methods for spore viability. A cell culture system for in vitro rearing of Nosema spp. is described. Finally, how to conduct different types of experiments are described, including infectious dose, dose effects, course of infection and longevity tests. Métodos estándar para la investigación sobre Nosema ResumenSe describen procedimientos para trabajar con Nosema apis y Nosema ceranae en el campo y en el laboratorio. Para el trabajo de campo, se describen diferentes métodos de muestreo para determinar infecciones al nivel de colonia en un momento determinado, y también para el seguimiento de la dinámica temporal de infección. Se hacen sugerencias para la forma de estandarizar los ensayos de campo para evaluar los tratamientos y el impacto de la enfermedad. Los métodos de laboratorio descritos incluyen diferentes formas de determinar los niveles de infección al nivel de colonia y de abeja individual, y los métodos para la determinación de las especies, incluyendo microscopía óptica, microscopía electrónica y métodos moleculares (PCR). Se hacen sugerencias para estandarizar los ensayos con cajas, y se describen diferentes métodos de inoculación para infectar abejas, incluyendo métodos de control para la viabilidad de las esporas. Se describe un sistema de cultivo celular para la cría in vitro de Nosema spp. Finalmente, se describe cómo llevar a cabo diferentes tipos de experimentos, incluyendo la dosis infecciosa, efectos de la dosis, curso de la infección y las pruebas de longevidad.

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“…A qPCR was subsequently performed following the protocols described by Traver and Fell (2011a). Briefly, Nosema species-specific TaqMan Gene Expression assays (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) were used to quantify infection levels and to identify the Nosema species present in each colony sampled.…”

Section: Genomic Dna Extraction and Quantitative Real-time Pcrmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Genomic DNA was extracted from individual abdomens of ten workers from each cavity sampled per year as described previously (Traver et al 2009;Traver and Fell 2011a). Briefly, a Bender buffer lysis followed by a proteinase K digestion and phenol/chloroform extraction was performed.…”

Section: Genomic Dna Extraction and Quantitative Real-time Pcrmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subsamples from five random DNA samples were pooled together to reduce the sample size for analysis. Pools of five DNA samples were collected twice for each sample, as there was individual DNA from ten bees from each colony sampled.A qPCR was subsequently performed following the protocols described by Traver and Fell (2011a). Briefly, Nosema species-specific TaqMan Gene Expression assays (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) were used to quantify infection levels and to identify the Nosema species present in each colony sampled.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Prevalence of Nosema species in a feral honey bee population: a 20-year survey

et al. 2015

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-Nosema spp. are microsporidian pathogens of honey bees that cause nosemosis, a disease implicated in colony losses worldwide. Few studies have measured Nosema spp. levels in feral honey bees. We evaluated the presence and infection intensity of Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae in a feral Africanized honey bee population in south Texas from 1991 to 2001 and in 2013. Overall, less than 6 % of samples had Nosema spp. spores. N. apis was only found in samples from 1991 to 1995. Conversely, N. ceranae was found every year examined, ranging from 16.7 % infection in 1991 to 85.7 % in 2013. There were no effects of temperature or rainfall on infection with either species over time. This suggests that feral honey bees are relatively free of Nosema spp. compared to managed colonies. More studies on the incidence of Nosema spp. in feral honey bee populations are needed.Apis mellifera / Africanized feral honey bees / Nosema apis / Nosema ceranae / qPCR INTRODUCTIONNosemosis, a disease of honey bees that infects epithelial cells of the midgut (Bailey 1981;Matheson 1993), can be caused by the presence of microsporidia species in the genus Nosema (Nosematidae). Nosemosis is transmitted horizontally between adults through the oral-fecal route, where uninfected adults become infected by contact with food or feces contaminated with Nosema spp. spores (Fries 1993(Fries , 1996. Following ingestion, spores germinate within the midgut by ejecting a polar filament that injects the Nosema spp. sporoplasm into epithelial cells of the midgut.Vegetative stages reproduce within the cells to form spores that are released upon lysis of the cell, which then are freed to infect other midgut epithelial cells (Bailey and Ball 1991). Two species of Nosema can infect the honey bee Apis mellifera : Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae .N. apis affects the western European honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) and is found worldwide (Matheson 1996). N. ceranae was first discovered in the Asian honey bee Apis cerana in 1996 (Fries 1996), was later identified in managed Apis mellifera colonies in Spain and Taiwan (Higes et al. 2006;Huang et al. 2007), and is now widespread in Europe (Higes et al. 2006(Higes et al. , 2009aChauzat 2007;Huang et al. 2007Huang et al. , 2008Klee et al. 2007;Paxton et al. 2007;Topolska and S. Kasprzak 2007), North America (Chen et al. 2008;Williams et al. 2008; Traver and Fell 2011a, b) Medici et al. 2012;Mendoza et al. 2014), Africa (Fries 2003;Higes et al. 2009b), and Australia (Giersch et al. 2009). While honey bee colonies infected with N. apis exhibit fecal streaking on the hives and comb due to severe dysentery (Hassanein 1951;Fries 1993), those infected with N. ceranae do not show obvious external symptoms. Despite the key symptomatic differences caused by different Nosema species, infection with one or both species causes significant declines in a colony's overall worker population (Wang and Mofller 1970;Higes et al. 2008) and honey production (Hassanein 1951;Fries et al. 1984;Rinderer and Sylvester 1978;Anderson and G...

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Prevalence and infection intensity of Nosema in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies in Virginia

Cited by 89 publications

References 33 publications

Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) and Pollination Issues: Current status, impacts and potential drivers of decline

Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) and Pollination Issues: Current status, impacts and potential drivers of decline

Standard methods forNosemaresearch

Prevalence of Nosema species in a feral honey bee population: a 20-year survey

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