Chronic bee paralysis virus

Chronic bee paralysis virus, abbreviated as CBPV, affects adult honey bees and causes a contagious case of chronic paralysis which can easily spread to other members of a colony. Symptoms include trembling of wings and body, loss of flight, loss of hair, and rejection by healthy members of the colony. Bees infected with CBPV die within a few days and is a factor in the loss of honeybee colonies.^[1]

Although CBPV infects mainly adult bees, the virus may also deal damage to bees in all developmental stages, though developing bees contained significantly lower amounts of the virus compared to their adult counterparts. Death with regards to infected developing bees and brood losses are either low or nonexistent as well.^[2]

Bees that have been infected with CBPV may house millions of viral particles, with half of them concentrated in the head region, allowing it to cause symptoms similar to diseases relating to nervous system damage. In fact, viral particles have been found to concentrate in two centers; mushroom bodies involved in sensory processing, memory, learning, and motor control as well as the center dealing with locomotive control, behavior and orientation, and arousal.,^[2][3]

Susceptibility

Worker bees are the most susceptible to infection due to injection, as a result of laboratory tests and the most efficient mode for spread of infection is close contact between healthy and infected bees in crowded areas. Although CBPV can easily spread due to close contact, contact between healthy bees and the feces of infected bees can also cause infection. Therefore, this viral infection may spread between hives as a result of this indirect contact.^[4] As a result of laboratory experiments, adult bees may become infected with CBPV by a viral injection, topical application, or by ingestion.^[2]

Testing

Chronic bee paralysis virus is crudely classified as an inapparent infection because there are few tell-tale symptoms and the amount of virus cannot be easily determined. Despite the use of infectivity and serological tests, these testing methods are inaccurate and are unable to be reproduced with constant results.^[2]

Symbiotic relationships

Despite CBPV mainly infecting honeybees as they are its main host, the virus has also been found present in carnivore ants as well. This suggests that the ants serve as a “reservoir” to increase virus numbers to more easily infect bees in a nest or apiary environment. These viral reservoirs can also be seen in other biological relationships, such as mosquitoes carrying viruses to infect vertebrates and aphids carrying viruses to infect plants. Regardless, these carnivorous ants may become infected with CBPV by either eating dead infected bees or by independently collecting honeydew.^[5]

References