Individual Variability of Nosema ceranae Infections in Apis mellifera Colonies

Mulholland, Grace E.; Traver, Brenna E.; Johnson, Nels G.; Fell, Richard D.

doi:10.3390/insects3041143

Cited by 29 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(89 reference statements)

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“…The amount of DWV had been previously determined from a pooled sample of 30 bees and the DC T values were used as an indication of viral load in each colony (for details see Martin et al, 2012). Our N. ceranae spore counts were based on pooled samples of 20 bees using the standard methods and were highly variable between colonies, as is typical for this species (Meana et al, 2010;Mulholland et al, 2012), but no significant difference (Kruskal-Wallis, d.f. = 3, H = 1.37, P = 0.7) was detected between the four islands.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do the honeybee pathogens Nosema ceranae and deformed wing virus act synergistically?

Martin

Hardy

Villalobos

et al. 2013

Environ Microbiol Rep

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The honeybee pathogens Nosema ceranae and deformed wing virus (DWV) cause the collapse of honeybee colonies. Therefore, it is plausible that these two pathogens act synergistically to increase colony losses, since N. ceranae causes damage to the mid-gut epithelial ventricular cells and actively suppresses the honeybees’ immune response, either of which could increase the virulence of viral pathogens within the bee. To test this hypothesis we exploited 322 Hawaiian honeybee colonies for which DWV prevalence and load is known. We determined via PCR that N. ceranae was present in 89–95% of these colonies, with no Nosema apis being detected. We found no significant difference in spore counts in colonies infected with DWV and those in which DWV was not detected, either on any of the four islands or across the entire honeybee population. Furthermore, no significant correlation between DWV loads (ΔCT levels) and N. ceranae spore counts was found, so these two pathogens are not acting synergistically. Although the Hawaiian honeybees have the highest known prevalence of N. ceranae in the world, with average number of spores been 2.7 million per bee, no acute Nosema related problems i.e. large-scale colony deaths, have been reported by Hawaiian beekeepers.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do the honeybee pathogens Nosema ceranae and deformed wing virus act synergistically?

Martin

Hardy

Villalobos

et al. 2013

Environ Microbiol Rep

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“…may lie in inherent host subspecific differences. For example, experiments in Spain are conducted using A. mellifera iberiensis ) while A. mellifera mellifera , A. mellifera carnica or Buckfast (a cross of many subspecies) are usually tested in central and northern Europe (Mulholland et al 2012;Fontbonne et al 2013;Francis et al 2014). However, recent studies suggest that genetic variation among individual bees or colonies within a subspecies-and not between subspecies-is a better predictor of host response to N. ceranae (Fontbonne et al 2013;Francis et al 2014;Meixner et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussion/conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

European isolates of the Microsporidia Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae have similar virulence in laboratory tests on European worker honey bees

2015

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-Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae are gut parasites that infect western honey bees (Apis mellifera ) worldwide. N. ceranae is an exotic infectious disease agent of A. mellifera , having been originally described in the Asian honey bee (Apis cerana ), while N. apis is native to the western honey bee. To better understand the dynamics and epidemiology of the two pathogens, we examined the impact of European isolates of both Microsporidia on the longevity of European A. mellifera in a controlled laboratory experiment. N. ceranae caused slightly higher host mortality compared to N. apis , but differences in virulence were subtle and non-significant. Variation across published studies may reflect geographic differences in the coadaptation of hosts and parasites and seasonal differences in host susceptibility.Apis mellifera / Microsporidia / host / parasite / survival

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“…Following the first centrifugation in the phenol/chloroform DNA extraction, the organic phase was solubilized with 95 % ethanol so that a spore count could be performed for each bee (Mulholland et al 2012). This modification was performed so that the genomic data for each bee could be compared to the spore count data of the same individual.…”

Section: Genomic Dna Extraction and Real-time Pcrmentioning

confidence: 99%

A scientific note: Survey for Nosema spp. in preserved Apis spp.

Traver

Fell

2014

Apidologie

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International audienceHistorically, Nosema apis was thought to bethe only species to infect Apis mellifera, but recentreports showed that Nosema ceranae is asecond microsporidium capable of infectingA. mellifera (Higes et al. 2006; Huang et al.2007). While N. ceranae was first described in1996 in Apis cerana (Fries et al. 1996) and initiallybelieved to be restricted to the natural hostrange of A. cerana (Fries 1997), N. ceranae hasbeen found everywhere beekeeping is practiced.N. ceranae has been present in the USA since1995 (Chen et al. 2008) and the earliest published reportof A. mellifera samples containing N. ceranae datesback to 1990 in samples from Uruguay (Invernizziet al. 2009). N. ceranae has also been found in otherApis spp. such as Apis florea and Apis dorsata coloniesin Northern Thailand, but no N. apis was detected(Chaimanee et al. 2010; Suwannapong et al. 2011).Samples from the Solomon Islands revealed that Apiskoschevnikovi were infected with N. ceranae, but onlyin areas where A. cerana had been sympatric and noN. apis was detected (Botías et al. 2012).N. ceranae has also been found in species outside ofthe genus Apis. Three species of bumble bee collectedfrom 2005–2008 in South America have been found tobe naturally infected with N. ceranae: Bombus atratus,Bombus morio, and Bombus bellicosus, but not infectedwith N. apis or Nosema bombi (Plischuk et al. 2009).Interestingly, in B. atratus, Nosema spores wer

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Individual Variability of Nosema ceranae Infections in Apis mellifera Colonies

Cited by 29 publications

References 47 publications

Do the honeybee pathogens Nosema ceranae and deformed wing virus act synergistically?

Do the honeybee pathogens Nosema ceranae and deformed wing virus act synergistically?

European isolates of the Microsporidia Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae have similar virulence in laboratory tests on European worker honey bees

A scientific note: Survey for Nosema spp. in preserved Apis spp.

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