Experimental infection of bumblebees with honeybee-associated viruses: no direct fitness costs but potential future threats to novel wild bee hosts.

ABSTRACT: Pathogen spillover represents an important cause of biodiversity decline. For wild bee species such as bumblebees, many of which are in decline, correlational data point towards viral spillover from managed honeybees as a potential cause. Yet, impacts of these viruses on wild bees are rarely evaluated. Here, in a series of highly controlled laboratory infection assays with well-characterized viral inocula, we show that three viral types isolated from honeybees (deformed wing virus genotype A, deformed wing virus genotype B and black queen cell virus) readily replicate within hosts of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Impacts of these honeybee-derived viruses - either injected or fed - on the mortality of B. terrestris workers were, however, negligible and probably dependent on

SUBMITTER: Tehel A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7428241 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature