Varroa destructor infestation of Apis mellifera colonies carries and/or promotes replication of honey bee viruses like the Deformed wing virus, the Varroa destructor virus-1, the Acute bee paralysis virus, the Israeli acute bee paralysis virus and the Kashmir bee virus that have been well described and characterized; but viruses exclusively associated with Varroa were not found. To look for vir...

Varroosis, a disease caused by the mite Varroa destructor Anderson and Treuman has killed hundreds of thousands of Apis mellifera L. colonies in various parts of the world. Nevertheless, the damage caused by this mite varies with the type of bee and climate conditions. Varroa causes little damage to Africanized bee colonies in Brazil, as the infestation rates are relatively stable and low. We e...

The varroa mite (Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman) is an ecto-parasite of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and is distributed worldwide. Because A. mellifera colonies almost always die within two to three years after mite infestation, if not treated, feral bee colonies (unmanaged colonies in the wild) in U.S. were almost totally wiped out by this mite around 1995, less than a decade...

The potential impact of varroa (Varroa destructor, Anderson & Trueman) on Australian beekeeping and agriculture depends in part on the levels of resistance to this parasite expressed by Australian commercial honeybees (Apis mellifera). The responses of seven lines of Australian honeybees to V. destructor were compared with the responses of a stock of Italian honeybees from the United States kno...

The prevalence and loads of deformed wing virus (DWV) between honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies from a tropical and a temperate environment were compared. The interaction between these environments and the mite Varroa destructor in relation to DWV prevalence, levels, and overt infections, was also analyzed. V. destructor rates were determined, and samples of mites, adult bees, brood parasi...

We present a simple SIR-Ross-MacDonald like model of the infestation of a honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony by the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), which is transmitted by parasitic varroa mites (Varroa destructor) as vector. This is a four dimensional system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the dependent variables healthy and virus infected bees, number of mites in the colony o...

Across the Northern hemisphere, managed honey bee colonies, Apis mellifera, are currently affected by abrupt depopulation during winter and many factors are suspected to be involved, either alone or in combination. Parasites and pathogens are considered as principal actors, in particular the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, associated viruses and the microsporidian Nosema ceranae. Here we ...

The ectoparasitic Varroa destructor mite is a major contributor to the ongoing honey bee health crisis. Varroa interacts with honey bee viruses, exacerbating their pathogenicity. In addition to vectoring viruses, immunosuppression of the developing honey bee hosts by Varroa has been proposed to explain the synergy between viruses and mites. However, the evidence for honey bee immune suppression...

Introduction Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman (2000) is an ectoparasitic mite which causes severe damage to Apis mellifera populations worldwide. Adult females of V. destructor feed directly on the haemolymph of honey bee pupae and can activate and transmit honeybee viruses. Infestation causes an increased prevalence of bee diseases and colony mortality, resulting in decline of honey produc...

Varroa destructor is a ubiquitous and parasitic mite of honey bees, infecting them with pathogenic viruses having a major impact on apiculture. We identified two novel circular replication-associated protein (Rep)-encoding single-stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses from V. destructor sampled from a honey bee hive near Christchurch in New Zealand.