Impacts of Diverse Natural Products on Honey Bee Viral Loads and Health

Authenticity of Honey and Other Bee Products

Honey authenticity is defined by the Codex Alimentarius standard, the EU Honey Directive and several national legislations. The Codex and EU standards were recently revised. The authenticity of honey and other bee products have two aspects. Authenticity in respect of production i.e. to prevent adulteration by addition of other food ingredients by correct beekeeping practice and processing. The ...

Honey Bee Viruses in Wild Bees: Viral Prevalence, Loads, and Experimental Inoculation

Evidence of inter-species pathogen transmission from managed to wild bees has sparked concern that emerging diseases could be causing or exacerbating wild bee declines. While some pathogens, like RNA viruses, have been found in pollen and wild bees, the threat these viruses pose to wild bees is largely unknown. Here, we tested 169 bees, representing 4 families and 8 genera, for five common hone...

Honey Bee-Infecting Plant Virus with Implications on Honey Bee Colony Health

Honey bees are eusocial insects that are commercially managed to provide pollination services for agricultural crops. Recent increased losses of honey bee colonies (averaging 32% annually since 2006) are associated with the incidence and abundance of pathogens. In their study in mBio, J. L. Li et al. [mBio 5(1):e00898-13, 2014, doi:10.1128/mBio.00898-13] share their discovery that a plant virus...

Ecological Adaptation of Diverse Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Populations

BACKGROUND Honey bees are complex eusocial insects that provide a critical contribution to human agricultural food production. Their natural migration has selected for traits that increase fitness within geographical areas, but in parallel their domestication has selected for traits that enhance productivity and survival under local conditions. Elucidating the biochemical mechanisms of these lo...

Factors Affecting Global Bee Health Honey Bee Health and Population Losses in Managed Bee Colonies