Honey bee viruses in Serbian colonies of different strength

Dragan Cirkovic; Jevrosima Stevanovic; Uros Glavinic; Nevenka Aleksic; Spomenka Djuric; Jelena Aleksic; Zoran Stanimirovic

doi:10.7717/peerj.5887

Honey bee viruses in Serbian colonies of different strength

PeerJ. 2018 Nov 14:6:e5887. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5887. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Dragan Cirkovic^#¹, Jevrosima Stevanovic², Uros Glavinic², Nevenka Aleksic³, Spomenka Djuric⁴, Jelena Aleksic⁵, Zoran Stanimirovic^#²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Technological Sciences, State University of Novi Pazar, Novi Pazar, Serbia.
² Department of Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
³ Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁴ Department of Economics and Statistics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.
⁵ Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering (IMGGE), University of Belgrade, Beograd, Serbia.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Protection of honey bees is of great economic importance because of their role in pollination. Crucial steps towards this goal are epidemiological surveys of pathogens connected with honey bee losses. In this study deformed wing virus (DWV), chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and sacbrood virus (SBV) were investigated in colonies of different strength located in five regions of Serbia. The relationship between colony strength and virus occurrence/infection intensity were assessed as well as the genetic relationship between virus sequences from Serbia and worldwide. Real-time RT-PCR analyses detected at least one virus in 87.33% of colonies. Single infection was found in 28.67% colonies (21.33%, 4.00%, 2.67% and 0.67% in cases of DWV, ABPV, SBV and CBPV, respectively). In the majority of colonies (58.66%) more than one virus was found. The most prevalent was DWV (74%), followed by ABPV, SBV and CBPV (49.30%, 24.00% and 6.70%, respectively). Except for DWV, the prevalence of the remaining three viruses significantly varied between the regions. No significant differences were found between colony strength and either (i) the prevalence of DWV, ABPV, SBV, CBPV and their combinations, or (ii) DWV infection levels. The sequences of honey bee viruses obtained from bees in Serbia were 93-99% identical with those deposited in GenBank.

Keywords: Apis mellifera; Bee pathology; Beekeeping; Colony strength; Phylogeny; Viruses.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (grant number III 46002, led by Prof. dr Zoran Stanimirović). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.