Detection of two Microsporidia pathogens of the European honey bee Apis Mellifera (Insecta: Apidae) in Western Siberia

Abstract

Two species of microsporidia, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, occur regularly and cause significant losses in apiculture throughout the world. N. ceranae is thought to be an emerging pathogen of the European honey bee which is replacing N. apis. Microscopic analysis of honey bees collected in Tyumen region, South-Western Siberia, suggested presence of two microsporidial pathogens slightly differing in spore size and shape. PCR detection using species-specific primer sets 312APIS and 218MITOC followed by PCR product sequencing confirmed the diagnosis of N. apis and N. ceranae, respectively. Microsporidia were present in private apiaries through 2008-2010, and among 21 colonies from 7 localities, two colonies were infected with both pathogens, while infections with N. apis only were detected in 8, and with N. ceranae only in 13 colonies. These data suggest that N. ceranae is widely spread in South-Western Siberia alongside with N. apis and is able to persist in the regions with average January temperatures below –18°C.

Development of Microsporidiology in Russia

“…Использование молекулярно-филогенетического анализа сделало возможным выяснение родственных отношений видов, относящихся к разным родам, в нескольких группировках микроспоридий. Подтверждена валидность ранее описанных видов микроспоридий пресноводных ракообразных (Issi et al, 2012;Tokarev et al, 2012) и рыб (Токарев и др., 2015), прямокрылых (Issi et al, 2008), жесткокрылых (Franzen et al, 2006) и чешуекрылых насекомых , составлены полные описания новых видов (Issi et al, 2010;Malysh et al, 2013;Simakova et al, 2018;Tokarev et al, 2018b), в том числе типовых видов новых родов (Tokarev et al, 2010ab;Lipa et al, 2020), проведена дифференциальная диагностика микроспоридий, обнаруженных в лабораторных и производственных культурах насекомых (Tokarev et al, 2018a), в том числе двух микроспоридий медоносной пчелы в условиях Западной Сибири (Tokarev et al, 2018c). Очень интересна и своевременна работа по ревизии всего состава видов, отнесённых к двум родам -Nosema и Vairimorpha, для уточнения диагнозов этих родов с учётом всех последних молекулярно-филогенетических данных (Tokarev et al, 2020).…”

Prevalence of the Microsporidian Nosema spp. in Honey Bee Populations (Apis mellifera) in Some Ecological Regions of North Asia

“…The prevalence of N. ceranae in more severe conditions in the continental regions of North Asia has not been adequately studied yet [13,58,59]. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of Nosema infection in honey bees inhabiting some ecological regions of North Asia (southern taiga, sub-taiga zone, forest steppe taiga, and mountain taiga forests) and assess climatic factors that influence prevalence.…”

Distribution of the Nosema ceranae (Microspora, Nosematidae) in the Apiaries in Ukraine

“…Morphometric analysis was carried out by microscoping of the drop of suspension of spores in the bright fi eld of the light microscope. As a standard were used samples of Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae spores, species belonging of which was set by the methods of the light microscopy and molecular phylogeny (Giles, 2008;Tokarev et al, 2010;Zinatullina et al, 2011;Ignatieva et al, 2012) (fi g. 1).…”

“…Nosema ceranae has been recorded by Tokarev et al (2010), Zinatullina et al (2011), and Ignatieva et al (2012) from Russian Federation, where it dominates over Nosema apis in the southern regions. Distribution of Nosema ceranae in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, most regions of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as in many other countries, remained unknown.…”