Deformed wing virus: Honeybees Threatened by a More Virulent Virus

Honeybees as pollinators are indispensable for the yield of many wild and cultivated flowering plants and for the preservation of biodiversity. Losses in honeybee populations are an on-going concern. Deformed wing virus, which causes crippled wings and is transmitted by varroa mites, is implicated as a major driver of colony decline.

DWV is composed of at least two unique genotypes, DWV-A and DWV-B. The team of researchers, including Professor Dino McMahon at Freie Universität Berlin and the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing and Professor Robert Paxton at MLU and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig were able to show the DWV-B is extremely virulent for the bees: it kills them faster than the traditional DWV-A. The researchers tested bees in Great Britain and Germany. A lot of them were infected with DWV-B.

The researchers stress the importance of identifying and characterizing the full diversity of pathogens thought to be responsible for disease. Professor Dino McMahon, who co-led the research with Dr Myrsini Natsopoulou, now at the University of Copenhagen, said, "Our findings are interesting because they show that one of the main culprits of honeybee decline - deformed wing virus transmitted by varroa mites - is in fact composed of different strains. Importantly, we have shown that an emerging variant of DWV, termed DWV-B, is more virulent than the globally established form of the virus, termed DWV-A." Professor Robert Paxton added, "Scientists have been searching for a cause or causes for the increased colony mortality that beekeepers have experienced over the past decade; the emergence of DWV-B in Europe may be just that cause."

"Our study also reveals the geographic distribution of this virulent virus genotype in honeybees across Great Britain. This may help us understand regional differences in honey bee mortality," said Professor Brown, of Royal Holloway University of London.

This study was funded by the Insect Pollinators Initiative, Great Britain, and iDiv.

Publication:
McMahon, D.P., Natsopoulou, M.E., Doublet, V., Fürst, M.A., Weging, S., Brown, M.J.F., Gogol-Döring, A., Paxton, R.J. (2016). Elevated virulence of an emerging viral genotype as a driver of honeybee loss. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London - Biological Sciences 20160811 , http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rspb.2016.0811

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