title: Effects of Imidacloprid and Varroa destructor on survival and health of European honey bees, Apis mellifera.
abstract: There has been growing concern over declines in populations of honey bees and other pollinators which are a vital part to our food security. It is imperative to identify factors responsible for accelerated declines in bee populations and develop solutions for reversing bee losses. While exact causes of colony losses remain elusive, risk factors thought to play key roles are ectoparasitic mites Varroa destructor and neonicotinoid pesticides. The present study aims to investigate effects of a neonicotinoid pesticide Imidacloprid and Varroa mites individually on survivorship, growth, physiology, virus dynamics and immunity of honey bee workers. Our study provides clear evidence that the exposure to sublethal doses of Imidacloprid could exert a significantly negative effect on health and survival of honey bees. We observed a significant reduction in the titer of vitellogenin (Vg), an egg yolk precursor that regulates the honey bees development and behavior and often are linked to energy homeostasis, in bees exposed to Imidacloprid. This result indicates that sublethal exposure to neonicotinoid could lead to increased energy usage in honey bees as detoxification is a energy-consuming metabolic process and suggests that Vg could be a useful biomarker for measuring levels of energy stress and sublethal effects of pesticides on honey bees. Measurement of the quantitative effects of different levels of Varroa mite infestation on the replication dynamic of Deformed wing virus (DWV), an RNA virus associated with Varroa infestation, and expression level of immune genes yields unique insights into how honey bees respond to stressors under laboratory conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.|USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Pendo M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Abbo
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.|USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Steven C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: DeGrandi-Hoffman
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.|College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wen Feng
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.|College of Bee Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Yan Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000821:virology; D005260:Female; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D007093:Imidazoles; D007304:Insect Viruses / Q000502:physiology; D007306:Insecticides; D000073943:Neonicotinoids; D009574:Nitro Compounds; D059551:Toxicity Tests, Subacute; D057077:Varroidae / Q000502:physiology*; D014819:Vitellogenins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D007093:Imidazoles; D007306:Insecticides; D000073943:Neonicotinoids; D009574:Nitro Compounds; D014819:Vitellogenins; C082359:imidacloprid
keywords: Deformed wing virus; Imidacloprid; Varroa; honey bees; innate immunity