# Four Categories of Viral Infection Describe the Health Status of Honey Bee Colonies



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Four Categories of Viral Infection Describe the Health Status of Honey Bee Colonies
Honey bee virus prevalence data are an essential prerequisite for managing epidemic events in a population. A survey study was carried out for seven viruses in colonies representing a healthy Danish honey bee population. In addition, colonies from apiaries with high level Varroa infestation or high level of winter mortality were also surveyed. Results from RT-qPCR showed a considerable difference of virus levels between healthy and sick colonies. In the group of healthy colonies, no virus was detected in 36% of cases, while at least one virus was found in each of the sick colonies. Virus titers varied among the samples, and multiple virus infections were common in both groups with a high prevalence of Sacbrood virus (SBV), Black queen cell virus (BQCV) and Deformed wing virus (DWV). Based on the distribution of virus titers, we established four categories of infection: samples free of virus (C = 0), samples with low virus titer (estimated number of virus copies 0 < C < 103), samples with medium virus titer (103 ≤ C < 107) and samples with high virus titer (C ≥ 107). This allowed us to statistically compare virus levels in healthy and sick colonies. Using categories to communicate virus diagnosis results to beekeepers may help them to reach an informed decision on management strategies to prevent further spread of viruses among colonies.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140272


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## radallo (Oct 28, 2015)

That's great, expecially if we could relate the hive status to these "categories".

My concerns are:
1) can these class considered a good indicator for any kind of virus? I mean.. do bees are affected the same way from 10^7DWV and 10^7CBPV? or they can tolerate different virus titre with respect to different visurse

2) what if.. more than one virus is affecting the same hive? do we sum? do we multiply? is there any interaction affecting bee health so we can't apply "categories" anymore?


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## BernhardHeuvel (Mar 13, 2013)

*Superinfection exclusion and the long-term survival of honey bees in Varroa-infested colonies*
Gideon J*Mordecai1,2, Laura E*Brettell3, Stephen J*Martin3, David*Dixon1, Ian M*Jones2 and Declan C*Schroeder1
The ISME Journal advance online publication 27*October*2015; doi: 10.1038/ismej.2015.186
http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ismej2015186a.html


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## radallo (Oct 28, 2015)

BernhardHeuvel said:


> *Superinfection exclusion and the long-term survival of honey bees in Varroa-infested colonies*
> Gideon J*Mordecai1,2, Laura E*Brettell3, Stephen J*Martin3, David*Dixon1, Ian M*Jones2 and Declan C*Schroeder1
> The ISME Journal advance online publication 27*October*2015; doi: 10.1038/ismej.2015.186
> http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ismej2015186a.html


Thanks for sharing,
People might find also worthy to have a look at this video before going into the paper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUFDXl8VGvs

to my understanding the varroa-strain they selected are more valuable than their bees, isn't it??


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