First molecular detection of the presence of honey bee viruses in insects, Varroa destructor mites, and pollinated plants in an isolated region of Armenia

Vet World Vol.16 May-2023 Article-15

Research Article

Veterinary World, 16(5): 1029-1034

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.1029-1034

Hranush Arzumanyan¹, Hranush Avagyan^1,2, Henry Voskanyan^1,3, Liana Simonyan³, Jon Simonyan³, Zara Semirjyan^1,2, and Zaven Karalyan^1,4

1. Laboratory of Cell Biology and Virology, Institute of Molecular Biology of NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia.
2. Experimental Laboratory, Yerevan State Medical University, Yerevan, Armenia.
3. Scientific Center for Risks Assessment and Analysis in Food Safety Area, CJCS, Yerevan, Armenia.
4. Department of Medical Biology, Yerevan State Medical University, Yerevan, Armenia.

Background and Aim: Recently, viral diseases of honey bees (Apis mellifera) have presented an increasing threat to beekeeping. This study aimed to examine the presence of honey bee viruses in Apis and non-Apis bee species, the mite Varroa destructor, and pollinated plants in Armenia.

Materials and Methods: Sampling was performed in Tavush Province, in the northeast of the Republic of Armenia, from August to November 2019. Overall, 200 A. mellifera bees, 50 V. destructor mites, and 20 wasps were collected (corresponding to three bees, five mites, and 2–11 wasps in each investigated sample) and homogenized for RNA isolation and detection of viruses. Ten pollinated plants were taken from each plant, and 2 g of each sample was used for homogenization. In each investigated case Apis mellifera, Varroa destructor, Vespula germanica and plants received percentages of the virus presence.

Results: Six important honey bee viruses (acute bee paralysis virus [ABPV], deformed wing virus [DWV], A. mellifera norovirus [ANV], Lake Sinai virus-2 [LSV-2], Big Sioux River virus [BSRV], and A. mellifera filamentous virus [AmFV]) were detected in samples by polymerase chain reaction. Our results showed that DWV, ANV, and ABPV were the most common viruses in honey bees. All viruses were detected in wasps, but LSV-2 and ANV were present in almost all samples.

Conclusion: Our results showed that almost all viruses were present in V. destructor. Although ANV is very common in honey bees, it did not appear in any mite samples. Our study indicates that viruses typically associated with honey bees were also actively infecting wasps. Our data suggest that the survival of viruses in plants can be an important source of seasonal transmission of viruses to bees. In addition, pollinated plants can potentially serve as reservoirs for honey bee viruses. Keywords: Apis mellifera, honey bee virus, polymerase chain reaction assay, pollinated plants, Varroa destructor.

Keywords: Apis mellifera, honey bee virus, polymerase chain reaction assay, pollinated plants, Varroa destructor.

How to cite this article: Arzumanyan H, Avagyan H, Voskanyan H, Simonyan L, Simonyan J, Semirjyan Z, and Karalyan Z (2023) First molecular detection of the presence of honey bee viruses in insects,

Received: 10-01-2023 Accepted: 12-04-2023 Published online: 15-05-2023

Corresponding author: E-mail: a.avagian@yahoo.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.1029-1034

Copyright: Arzumanyan, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.