Detection of Honeybee Viruses in a Queen-Rearing Apiary from Argentina

Abstract

Bee viruses cause significant losses in honey production around the world. Previous studies detected at least 8 different viruses in Argentinean honey producer apiaries. Queen rearing activity is used by beekeepers to increase brood and honey production, to start new colonies and to change the colony genetic background. The aim of this study was to detect the presence of bee viruses in an Argentinean queen rearing apiary with highly increased queen pupae mortality. Samples of pupae and royal jelly were collected from queen rearing hives and analyzed by RT-PCR. Sampled pupae with viral symptoms were found to be positive for acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and black queen cell virus (BQCV). Gene fragments from ABPV and BQCV positive samples were amplified and sequenced in order to perform phylogenetic analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of bee virus detection in a queen rearing apiary from Argentina and the first phylogenetic analysis using local nucleotide sequences data.