Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2013
Metagenomic Detection of Viral Pathogens in Spanish Honeybees: Co- Infection by Aphid Lethal Paralysis, Israel Acute Paralysis and Lake Sinai Viruses
Granberg F, Vicente-Rubiano M, Rubio-Guerri C, Karlsson OE, Kukielka D, Belak S, Manuel Sanchez-Vizcaino JMAbstract
The situation in Europe concerning honeybees has in recent years become increasingly aggravated with steady decline in populations and/or catastrophic winter losses. This has largely been attributed to the occurrence of a variety of known and "unknown", emerging novel diseases. Previous studies have demonstrated that colonies often can harbour more than one pathogen, making identification of etiological agents with classical methods difficult. By employing an unbiased metagenomic approach, which allows the detection of both unexpected and previously unknown infectious agents, the detection of three viruses, Aphid Lethal Paralysis Virus (ALPV), Israel Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), and Lake Sinai Virus (LSV), in honeybees from Spain is reported in this article. The existence of a subgroup of ALPV with the ability to infect bees was only recently reported and this is the first identification of such a strain in Europe. Similarly, LSV appear to be a still unclassified group of viruses with unclear impact on colony health and these viruses have not previously been identified outside of the United States. Furthermore, our study also reveals that these bees carried a plant virus, Turnip Ringspot Virus (TuRSV), potentially serving as important vector organisms. Taken together, these results demonstrate the new possibilities opened up by high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic analysis to study emerging new diseases in domestic and wild animal populations, including honeybees.Published in
PLoS ONE2013, volume: 8, number: 2, article number: e57459
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Authors' information
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health
Vicente-Rubiano, Marina
Complutense University of Madrid
Rubio-Guerri, Consuelo
Complutense University of Madrid
Karlsson, Oskar (Karlsson, Oskar)
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics
Kukielka, Deborah
Complutense University of Madrid
Belák, Sándor (Belak, Sandor)
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health
Belák, Sándor (Belak, Sandor)
National Veterinary Institute (SVA)
Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno, José
Complutense University of Madrid
UKÄ Subject classification
Microbiology
Pathobiology
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057459
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/39775