Small hive beetle : exploration of a screening method via DNA analysis of hive debris and scraps

s of Oral Presentations 1. Israeli acute bee paralysis virus and the health of honey bee queens Esmaeil Amiri1,2, Gregory Seddon1, Wendy Zuluaga Smith1, Micheline Strand3, David Tarpy2, and Olav Rueppell1. 1Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA. 2Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. 3Life Science Division, U.S. Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA. Among the many factors causing honeybee colony loss, failure or loss of the queen is considered an important issue. It is believed that the queen is well protected by nurse worker bees leading to lower exposure to infectious diseases in the colony. Nevertheless, existing colony pathogens including viruses can infect the queen. In this project, we used Israeli acute bee paralysis virus (IAPV) as a model, since this virus has been linked to colony loss. IAPV along with Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and Kashmir bee virus (KBV) are part of a complex of closely-related single stranded viruses from the family Dicistroviridae. IAPV often exists in the honey bee colony as a covert, low-titer infection but can become extremely virulent and kill its hosts quickly. In a series of laboratory experiments, we studied queen-worker interactions to determine whether behavioral adjustments can protect the queen from the virus. We found that queens generally reduce their contact with infected workers, presumably to protect themselves. In a second experiment, we studied the horizontal virus transmission route among workers, as well as between workers and the queen as a potential route for IAPV transmission in the colony (see Figure 1). Our data identify oral-oral transmission pathways of IAPV between colony members. However, restricting physical contact between infected workers and queens lowers the queen virus infection, suggesting that IAPV can also be transmitted by close bodily contact between queens and infected bees. Generally, the queens exhibited lower IAPV titers than surrounding workers, which may indicate that they are better protected, but this observation could also be explained by a time-lag of several days for infections to build up during the experiment. Overall, it can be concluded that queens might be better protected against IAPV than workers but they experience infection with IAPV by trophallaxis and physical contact with infected workers. 2. Evaluation of synthetic miticides efficacy in Varroa mites’ control Rassol Bahreini and Medhat Nasr. Crop Diversification Centre North, Crop Research and Extension Division, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Edmonton,