Source
Bee Pathology laboratory, Centro Apícola Regional, JCCM, 19180 Marchamalo, Spain Instituto de Recursos Humanos para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (INCRECYT), Fundación Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Albacete, Spain Epidemiology Consultant, C/Puente la Reina, 28050 Madrid, Spain Instituto Universitario de Investigación en ciencias policiales (IUICP), Comisaría General de la Policía Científica, DNA Laboratory, Madrid, Spain Animal Health Department, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Abstract
Nosema ceranae has been suggested to be replacing Nosema apis in some populations of Apis mellifera honeybees. However, this replacement from one to the other is not supported when studying the distribution and prevalence of both microsporidia in professional apiaries in Spanish territories (transverse study), their seasonal pattern in experimental hives with co-infection or their prevalence at individual level (either in worker bees or drones). Nevertheless, N. ceranae has shown to present a higher prevalence at all the studied levels that could indicate any advantage for its development over N. apis or that it is more adapted to Spanish conditions. Also, both microsporidia show a different pattern of preference for its development according to the prevalence in the different Spanish bioclimatic belts studied. Finally, the fact that all analyses were carried out using an Internal PCR Control (IPC) newly developed guarantees the confidence of the data extracted from the PCR analyses. This IPC provides a useful tool for laboratory detection of honeybee pathogens.
© 2011 Society for Applied Microbiology and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.