title: Detection of Spiroplasma melliferum in honey bee colonies in the US.
abstract: Spiroplasma infections in honey bees have been reported in Europe and Asia quite recently, due to intensive studies on the epidemiology of honey bee diseases. The situation in the US is less well analyzed. Here, we examined the honey bee colonies in Beltsville, MD, where Spiroplasmamelliferum was originally reported and found S. melliferum infection in honey bees. Our data showed high variation of S. melliferum infection in honey bees with a peak prevalence in May during the course of one-year study period. The colony prevalence increased from 5% in February to 68% in May and then decreased to 25% in June and 22% in July. Despite that pathogenicity of spiroplasmas in honey bee colonies remains to be determined, our results indicated that spiroplasma infections need to be included for the consideration of the impacts on honey bee health.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, PR China; USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
authors.forename: Huo-Qing
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA. Electronic address: judy.chen@ars.usda.gov.
authors.forename: Yan Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000382:microbiology*; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000662:veterinary; D015995:Prevalence; D012621:Seasons; D013149:Spiroplasma; D014481:United States
keywords: Honey bee; PCR detection; Spiroplasma melliferum; Variation