Comparative quantification of honey bee (Apis mellifera) associated viruses in wild and managed colonies at the Welder Wildlife Refuge, TX

The most detrimental threat to honey bee (Apis mellifera) health continues to be the ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor, which has been linked to colony losses worldwide. Varroa is also a prolific vector of several honey bee-associated viruses. Wild honey bee colonies are more tolerant to Varroa parasitization than managed colonies. Because they live in feral conditions, wild colonies are not treated for Varroa control, allowing for the natural selection of mite tolerant bees. To date, there is limited information about virus prevalence in wild Africanized honey bee (AHB) populations. The Welder Wildlife Refuge (WWR) is a unique site to study the viral landscape of wild AHBs in the Southern U.S. Our goal is to identify and quantify honey bee-associated viruses in a wild population of AHBs and compare the presence of these viruses to that in the nearest managed apiaries, to examine potential changes in the prevalence of viruses over time. We collected samples from over fifty wild AHB colonies at the WWR in 2013 and 2016. In 2013, 50% of the samples contained both Deformed wing virus (DWV) and Black queen cell virus (BQCV), while 16% of the samples contained Lake Sinai virus and Sacbrood virus (SBV). In 2016, we detected the presence of BQCV (65% of the samples), DWV (20% of samples), and SBV (10% of samples). Our next step is to quantify the absolute virus loads in all samples using quantitative PCR to detect any changes in the viral landscape of WWR bees overtime.