Veterinary Diagnostic Approach of Common Virus Diseases in Adult Honeybees

Abstract

Veterinarians are educated in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases in various vertebrate species. As they are familiar with multifactorial health problems in single animals as well as in herd health management, their knowledge and skills can be beneficial for the beekeepers and honeybee health. However, in education and in practice, honeybees are not a common species for most veterinarians and the typical veterinary diagnostic methods such as blood sampling or auscultation are not applicable to the superorganism honeybee. Honeybee colonies may be affected by various biotic and abiotic factors. Among the infectious agents, RNA-viruses build the largest group, causing covert and overt infections in honeybee colonies which may lead to colony losses. Veterinarians could and should play a more substantial role in managing honeybee health—not limited to cases of notifiable diseases and official hygiene controls. This review discusses the veterinary diagnostic approach to adult bee examination with a special focus on diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the common virus diseases Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV)-Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV)-Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV)-Complex, Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV) and Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), as well as coinfections like Varroa spp. and Nosema spp.

Epidemiology of a major honey bee pathogen, deformed wing virus: potential worldwide replacement of genotype A by genotype B

“…As part of the governmental support of beekeeping in Germany, beekeepers can send a sample of honey bees from colonies that unexpectedly decline in workforce for pesticide residue and pathogen testing to help determine the cause of decline. We have retrospectively re-analysed RNA extracts of 2013, 2019 and 2020 samples for DWV-A and DWV-B using a TaqMan-based qPCR assay, exactly as described in Dittes et al (2020) . We combine 2019 and 2020 samples for ease of interpretation of temporal trends in genotype prevalence.…”

Molecular Detection and Differentiation of Arthropod, Fungal, Protozoan, Bacterial and Viral Pathogens of Honeybees

“…Amebiasis is transmitted when a bee ingests M. mellificae cysts that have been eliminated with the feces of an infected bee. The relatively few studies carried out report that the infection is associated with diarrhea, abdomen swelling, lethargy, and death [ 238 , 239 , 240 ]. It has been reported that the presence of M. mellificae in honeybees correlates with Nosema spp.…”

“…infections [ 241 , 242 ]. Until now, diagnostics has been carried out by microscopic observation of Malpighian tubes [ 240 ]. Recently, however, a qPCR diagnostic assay with high specificity and sensitivity has been developed based on the 18S rRNA gene sequence as a target [ 243 ].…”

Chronische-Bienenparalyse-Virus – quo vadis? Auftreten in Bayern und Betrachtung von Therapiemaßnahmen

“…Vervielfältigung nur mit Zustimmung des Verlages. von Bedeutung [18]. Grund für die Einsendung von Proben war für die Imkernden primär "Totenfall" (n = 89) oder das "Eingehen des Volks" (n = 76), in selteneren Fällen wurden im Vorbericht konkrete Symptome genannt, z.…”

“…330 Bienen bzw. 31 g einem Volumen von rund 100 ml entsprechen [18]. Mit diesem Probenumfang lassen sich i. d. R. alle relevanten Laboranalysen durchführen.…”