Survey of feral honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies for Nosema apis in Western Australia

Manning, R.J.; Lancaster, K. R.; Rutkay, April; Eaton, Linda

doi:10.1071/ea04222

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…ceranae was present in the Australian populations [ 66 ]. Our pathogen results are consistent with studies that identified lower intensity or prevalence of Nosema parasites in feral bees than managed bees in the U.S. and Australia [ 22 , 67 , 68 ], and a similar trend in Europe [ 21 ]. We detected an extraordinarily high prevalence of N .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Urbanization Increases Pathogen Pressure on Feral and Managed Honey Bees

et al. 2015

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Given the role of infectious disease in global pollinator decline, there is a need to understand factors that shape pathogen susceptibility and transmission in bees. Here we ask how urbanization affects the immune response and pathogen load of feral and managed colonies of honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus), the predominant economically important pollinator worldwide. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we measured expression of 4 immune genes and relative abundance of 10 honey bee pathogens. We also measured worker survival in a laboratory bioassay. We found that pathogen pressure on honey bees increased with urbanization and management, and the probability of worker survival declined 3-fold along our urbanization gradient. The effect of management on pathogens appears to be mediated by immunity, with feral bees expressing immune genes at nearly twice the levels of managed bees following an immune challenge. The effect of urbanization, however, was not linked with immunity; instead, urbanization may favor viability and transmission of some disease agents. Feral colonies, with lower disease burdens and stronger immune responses, may illuminate ways to improve honey bee management. The previously unexamined effects of urbanization on honey-bee disease are concerning, suggesting that urban areas may favor problematic diseases of pollinators.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Urbanization Increases Pathogen Pressure on Feral and Managed Honey Bees

et al. 2015

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“…virus infections and EFB infections (brood disease) are more prevalent but data suggests no significant difference in N. ceranae prevalence, Table I). This is congruent with data from A. mellifera where brood disease is very low in free-living colonies and significantly higher in managed colonies (Goodwin et al 1994;Hornitzky et al 1996), whereas N. apis infections show little difference in incidence between managed and free-living colonies (Manning et al 2007). Although the number of samples from wild colonies is low (N =8), our data suggest that the negative impact of apiculture on disease prevalence is similar in both A. mellifera and A. cerana .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Preliminary observations on possible pathogen spill-over from Apis mellifera to Apis cerana

et al. 2014

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International audiencePopulations of Apis mellifera and Apis cerana in China and Vietnam were surveyed in order to study possible pathogen spill-over from European to Asian honeybees. This is the first survey of the prevalence of honeybee pathogens in apiaries in Vietnam, including pathogen prevalence in wild A. cerana colonies never in contact with A. mellifera. The bee samples were assayed for eight honeybee viruses: deformed wing virus (DWV); black queen cell virus (BQCV); sac brood virus (SBV); acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV); Kashmir bee virus (KBV); Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV); chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV); and slow bee paralysis virus (SBPV), for two gut parasites (Nosema ssp.) and for the causative agent for European foulbrood (Melissococcus plutonius). The Vietnamese samples were assayed for Acarapis woodi infestation. No clear evidence of unique inter-specific transmission of virus infections between the two honeybee species was found. However, in wild A. cerana colonies, the only virus infection detected was DWV. With findings of IAPV infections in Chinese samples of A. cerana colonies in contact with A. mellifera, inter-specific transmission of IAPV cannot be ruled out. BQCV was the most prevalent virus in managed colonies irrespective of bee species. We did not detect the causative agent of European foulbrood, M. plutonius in wild or isolated colonies of A. cerana in Vietnam or China; however, low incidence of this pathogen was found in the Asian host species when in contact with its European sister species. No evidence for the presence of A. woodi was found in the Vietnamese samples

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“…Incidentally, this region of the USA suffered one of the most devastating droughts recorded in recent history in 2011 (Combs 2012), which likely influenced the colony-level dynamics of Nosema in feral honey bees at the WWR for our 2013 sampling period. More studies are needed to determine the seasonal changes in Nosema levels in this population during the entire year, particularly Prevalence of Nosema in feral honey bees 567 in the fall, and if the likelihood of Nosema infection is correlated with weather, as was found previously in other regions (Doull and Cellier 1961, Cantwell and Shimanuki 1970, Manning et al 2007. Such studies have shown that Nosema levels are lowest during the summer months, while they go up in spring or autumn (Doull and Cellier 1961, Manning et al 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Manning et al (2007) reported high levels of N. apis infection in feral honey bee colonies around southwestern Australia from 2002 to 2003. While all the colonies surveyed were infected with N. apis , the presence and severity of infection were significantly affected by the location of the colony and the weather during sample collection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those that have looked at the levels of Nosema in feral honey bee populations have only reported data on N. apis infection. For example, Manning et al (2007) looked at the levels of N. apis in feral colonies, settled swarms, and managed colonies in southwestern Australia in the early 2000s. They found that 77 % of the feral colonies were infected with N. apis , with the infection ranging from 0 to 25 million spores/ bee.…”

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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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Survey of feral honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies for Nosema apis in Western Australia

Cited by 10 publications

References 11 publications

Urbanization Increases Pathogen Pressure on Feral and Managed Honey Bees

Urbanization Increases Pathogen Pressure on Feral and Managed Honey Bees

Preliminary observations on possible pathogen spill-over from Apis mellifera to Apis cerana

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

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