Systemic Spread and Propagation of a Plant-Pathogenic Virus in European Honeybees, Apis mellifera

Li, Ji Lian; Cornman, R. Scott; Evans, Jay D.; Pettis, Jeffery S.; Zhao, Yan; Murphy, Charles; Peng, Wen Jun; Wu, Jie; Hamilton, Michele; Boncristiani, Humberto F.; Zhou, Liang; Hammond, John; Chen, Yan Ping

To determine the seasonal prevalence of TRSV in honeybee colonies, bee samples collected every month were subject to RT-PCR analysis individually for TRSV as well as other seven common honeybee viruses, including acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), BQCV, chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), DWV, Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV), and SBV. The primer pair TRSV-F2/TRSV-R2 was used for RT-PCR amplification of TRSV. The primer sets used for RT-PCR amplification of common honeybee viruses have been reported previously (49, 58) . Putative TRSV amplification products were purified and sequenced to confirm the specificity of the RT-PCR assay. The infection rate of each virus (20 workers) and strength of individual colonies were recorded every month throughout the year.