The presence of identical deformed wing virus sequence variants in co-occurring Apis species in Northern Thailand may represent a potential epidemiological threat to native honey bees of Southeast Asia

Abstract

Widespread native honey bee species in South and East Asia (Apis cerana, Apis dorsata and Apis florea) and the imported western honey bee (Apis mellifera) share habitats and potentially also share pathogens. Chief among the threats facing A. mellifera in Europe and North America is deformed wing virus (DWV), including its two principal genotypes: A and B (DWV-A and DWV-B respectively). Though DWV-A has been recorded in Asia’s native Apis species, it is not known if DWV-B, or both DWV-A and DWV-B, are currently widespread in Asia and, if so, whether viral transmission is primarily intraspecific or interspecific. This study aims to fill these knowledge gaps by (i) determining the DWV genotype in four co-occurring Apis host species using qPCR and (ii) inferring viral transmission between them using nucleotide sequences of DWV from Apis host species collected at three independent localities in Northern Thailand. We found DWV-A and -B in all four Apis species, the exotic A. mellifera and the native A. cerana, A. dorsata and A. florea. That DWV-A sequences were identical across Apis species at the same locality, with a similar pattern for DWV-B sequences, suggests that DWV’s epidemiology is largely driven by ongoing interspecific transmission (spillover) of DWV across co-occurring native and exotic Apis species. Both genotypes of DWV represent a serious threat to Asia’s exotic and native honey bee species.