UCSF Finds NEW Bee Viruses in PAm Funded Study
Why not use the same detection tools that find illnesses in humans to search for the cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honey bees?  This is the very question that Christi Heintz, executive director of Project Apis m. (PAm) asked Joseph DeRisi, PhD, and his team at University of California, San Francisco.  So began a partnership that joined a non-profit honey bee research organization dedicated to honey bee health, a renowned molecular biologist and biochemist and one of North America’s largest commercial beekeeping operations. 

 

Project Apis m. initiated and contributed towards funding the year-long study which was recently published in the June 2011 issue of the Public Library of Science (PLoS).  “Dr. DeRisi is tops in his field and we convinced him to transfer his expertise to honey bees,” said Heintz.  When initially approached, DeRisi wasn’t fully aware of the extent to which colonies are transported coast-to-coast to pollinate crops and that commercial beekeepers were losing more than 30% of their colonies each year.  However, what DeRisi did know very well is what makes us sick.  His lab at UCSF works on the causes of malaria, SARS and other ills. 

 

DeRisi is a recipient of the MacArthur Award, dubbed the ‘genius’ award, given for exceptional creativity and aptitude for making future advancements and important contributions in their area.  Heintz remarks, “We needed nothing short of a genius like DeRisi to work on CCD in honey bees”.    

 

 

What did DeRisi find in hives?  First, a baseline had to be established.  “We brought a quantitative view of what real migrating populations look like in terms of disease,” DeRisi said.  “You can’t begin to understand colony die-off without understanding what normal is.”  After following 20 colonies in a commercial beekeeping operation of more than 70,000 hives, DeRisi and his team monitored for all known insect viruses and discovered 4 new viruses in honey bee samples.  Two of these viruses, Lake Sinai Virus Strain 1 and 2 were shown to replicate in bees.  In fact, LSV2 was the most abundant virus in their study. In addition to monitoring the incidence and load of new and previously characterized honey bee viruses, the research team monitored Nosema and trypanosomatid (Crithidia mellificae).  The Arthropod Pathogen Microarray (APM), a detection platform designed for this research can also be used to track bacteria and fungi. What is the next step?  PAm plans to further fund Dr. DeRisi now that these pests and pathogens have been identified and how these findings can be applied in practical terms for beekeepers.   

To read DeRisi’s full article in PLoS, click here.

 

 
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