permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] CCD virus
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 19:36:56 -0400
From: jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Below I have included the most recent science report , a press report
and a description of the acute bee paralysis virus  the prime suspect in
CCD.The authors of the Science paper were careful to acknowledge that
factors including pesticide exposure that effects the bee immune system
may be contributers to the virus infection. The suspect virus israeli
acute pralysis virus is a conventional small RNA virus which has a
unique tendency to integrate DNA copies of some of its sequences into
the bee genome even though it is not a retrovirus. The virus must be
helped in that practice by a retrotransposon or retrovirus in the bee
but not yet identified.
Published Online September 6, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1146498
science magazine
A Metagenomic Survey of Microbes in Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Diana L. Cox-Foster 1, Sean Conlan 2, Edward C. Holmes 3, Gustavo
Palacios 2, Jay D. Evans 4, Nancy A. Moran 5, Phenix-Lan Quan 2, Thomas
Briese 2, Mady Hornig 2, David M. Geiser 6, Vince Martinson 7, Dennis
vanEngelsdorp 8, Abby L. Kalkstein 1, Andrew Drysdale 2, Jeffrey Hui 2,
Junhui Zhai 2, Liwang Cui 1, Stephen K. Hutchison 9, Jan Fredrik Simons
9, Michael Egholm 9, Jeffery S. Pettis 4, W. Ian Lipkin 2*

1 Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI
building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
2 Center for Infection and Immunity, Mailman School of Public Health,
Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
3 Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Department of Biology, The
Pennsylvania State University, Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA
16802, USA.; Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
4 Bee Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
5 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona,
Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
6 Department of Plant Pathology, The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, PA 16802, USA.
7 The Center for Insect Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
85721, USA.
8 Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, 501 ASI
building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.; The Pennsylvania Department
of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry - Apiculture, Harrisburg, PA
17110, USA.
9 454 Life Sciences, Branford, CT 06405, USA.

In colony collapse disorder (CCD), honey bee colonies inexplicably lose
their workers. CCD has resulted in a loss of 50 to 90% of colonies in
beekeeping operations across the United States. The observation that
irradiated combs from affected colonies can be repopulated with naive
bees suggests that infection may contribute to CCD. We used an unbiased
metagenomic approach to survey microflora in CCD hives, normal hives,
and imported royal jelly. Candidate pathogens were screened for
significance of association with CCD by examination of samples collected
from several sites over a period of 3 years. One organism, Israeli acute
paralysis virus of bees (IAPV), was strongly correlated with CCD.
Virus Is Newest Suspected Bee-Killer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2007(AP) Scientific sleuths have a new suspect for
what's been killing billions of honeybees: a virus previously unknown in
the United States.

The scientists report using a novel genetic technique and old-fashioned
statistics to identify Israeli acute paralysis virus as the latest
potential culprit in the widespread deaths of worker bees, a phenomenon
known as colony collapse disorder.

Next up are attempts to infect honeybees with the newfound virus to see
if it's indeed a killer.

"At least we have a lead now we can begin to follow. We can use it as a
marker and we can use it to investigate whether it does in fact cause
disease," said Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist
and co-author of the study. Details appear this week in Science Express,
the online edition of the journal Science.

Experts stressed that parasitic mites, pesticides and poor nutrition all
remain in the lineup of suspects, as does the stress of travel.
Beekeepers shuffle bees around the nation throughout the year so they
can pollinate crops as they come into bloom. The newfound virus may
prove to have added nothing more than insult to the injuries bees
already suffer, said several experts unconnected to the study.

"This may be a piece or a couple of pieces of the puzzle, but I
certainly don't think it is the whole thing," said Jerry Hayes, chief of
the apiary section of the Florida department of agriculture.

Still, surveys of honeybees from decimated colonies turned up traces of
the virus nearly every time; bees untouched by the phenomenon were
virtually free of it. That means finding the virus should be a red flag
that a hive is at risk and merits being quarantined, scientists said.

"The authors themselves recognize it's not a slam dunk, it's
correlative. But it's certainly more than a smoking gun - more like a
smoking arsenal. It's very compelling," said May Berenbaum, a University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign entomologist.

The mysterious deaths have struck between 50 percent and 90 percent of
commercial honeybee hives in the United States, sowing fears about the
effects on the more than 90 crops that rely on bees to pollinate them.

Scientists previously have found blasting emptied hives with radiation
apparently kills whatever infectious agent that causes the disorder.
That has focused their attention on viruses, bacteria and the like, to
the exclusion of other noninfectious phenomena, like cell phone
interference, also proposed as culprits.

The earliest reports of colony collapse disorder date to 2004, the same
year the virus was first described by Israeli virologist Ilan Sela. That
also was the year U.S. beekeepers began importing bees from Australia -
a practice that had been banned by the Honeybee Act of 1922.

Now, Australia is being eyed as a potential source of the virus. That
could turn out to be an ironic twist, since the Australian imports were
meant to bolster, not further damage, U.S. bee populations devastated by
another scourge, the varroa mite. Meanwhile, officials are discussing
reinstating the ban, said the Agriculture Department's top bee
scientist, Jeff Pettis.

In the new study, a team of nearly two dozen scientists used the genetic
sequencing equivalent of a dragnet to round up suspects. The technique,
called pyrosequencing, generates a list of the full repertoire of genes
in bees they examined from U.S. hives and directly imported from Australia.

By separating out the bee genes and then comparing the leftover genetic
sequences to others detailed in public databases - a move akin to
running a suspect's fingerprints - the scientists could pick out every
fungus, bacterium, parasite and virus harbored by the bees.

They then looked for each pathogen in bees collected from normal hives
and others affected by colony collapse disorder. That statistical
comparison showed Israeli acute paralysis virus was strongly associated
with the disorder.

The technique is a model for investigating outbreaks of infectious
diseases in people too, since it can rapidly pinpoint likely causes,
Lipkin said.

Sela, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor, said he will
collaborate with U.S. scientists on studying how and why the bee virus
may be fatal. Preliminary research shows some bees can integrate genetic
information from the virus into their own genomes, apparently giving
them resistance, Sela said in a telephone interview. Sela added that
about 30 percent of the bees he's examined had done so.

Those naturally "transgenic" honeybees theoretically could be propagated
to create stocks of virus-resistant insects, Lipkin said.

http://www.ebi.ac.uk/2can/genomes/viruses/Acute_bee_paralysis_virus.html
Acute bee paralysis virus causes paralysis in bees (Apis mellifera)

Viral diseases of honeybees are a major concern in apiculture, causing
serious colony losses worldwide.

Paralysis, a minor disease of adult honey bees, is usually associated
with filterable vrruses. Two different viruses, chronic bee paralysis
virus (CBPV) and acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), have been isolated
from paralytic bees. Other suspected causes of paralysis include pollen
and nectar from such plants as buttercup, rhododendron, laurel, and some
species of basswood; deficient pollen during brood rearing in the early
spring; and consumption of stored fermented pollen.

Bees affected by this disease tremble uncontrollably and are unable to
fly. In addition, they lose the hair from their bodies and have a dark,
shiny, or greasy appearance. Paralytic bees are submissive to attack.
When paralysis is serious, large numbers of afflicted bees can be found
at the colony entrance, crawling up the sides of the hive and blades of
grass, and tumbling to the ground. Healthy bees often tug at infected
bees in an effort to drive them away from the hive. Affected bees also
may be found on top bars or frames next to the hive cover with wings
extended.

ABPV is a virus that effects mainly the honeybee ( Apis mellifera). ABPV
has also been found in bumblebees and is the only bee virus known to
have a natural alternate host . This virus spreads by way of salivary
gland secretions of adult bees and in food stores to which these
secretions are added. In Europe and North America, ABPV has been shown
to kill adult bees and bee larvae in colonies infested with the mite
Varroa jacobsoni. The mite damages bee tissues and, in so doing, may act
as a vector, releasing viral particles into the hemolymph. The biology
of bee viral diseases, their relationship with mites, and their effects
on bees are poorly understood. Analysis of the complete genome sequence
of Acute Bee Paralysis Virus will provide a better understanding of the
relationship among viruses, mites and colony decline.

The genome sequencing project has stated that the overall genome
structure of ABPV showed similarities to those of Drosophila C virus,
Plautia stali intestine virus, Rhopalosiphum padi virus, and Himetobi P
virus, which have been classified into a novel group of picorna-like
insect-infecting RNA viruses called cricket paralysis-like viruses. It
is suggested that ABPV belongs to the cricket paralysis-like viruses.