Populations of European honeybee subspecies, Apis mellifera , have the ability to adapt naturally to the ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor . It is possible that a tolerance to mite-vectored viruses may contribute to colony survival. If this is the case, surviving populations should show lower virus titers and prevalence compared to susceptible populations. Here, we investigated the prevalence and titers of 10 viruses, some known to be associated with V. destructor, in adult workers and pupae as well as mites. Samples were collected from both a mite-surviving and mite-susceptible honeybee population in Norway. Surviving colonies had a lower prevalence of a key virus (DWV-A) associated with V. destructor in individual adult bees sampled, and generally lower titers of this virus in mite infested pupae and mites within the colonies when compared to sympatric, susceptible controls. However, these surviving colonies also displayed higher prevalence and titers of two viruses not associated with V. destructor (BQCV & LSV1). The results of this study therefore suggest that general tolerance to virus infections is unlikely to be a key mechanism for natural colony survival in Norway, but evidence may point to mite control as a predominant mechanism.

中文翻译：

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抗Varroa破坏性蜜蜂中的病毒感染

欧洲蜜蜂亚种Apis mellifera的种群具有自然适应外寄生螨Varroa破坏因子的能力。对螨载体病毒的耐受性可能有助于菌落存活。在这种情况下，与易感人群相比，存活的人群应显示出较低的病毒滴度和流行率。在这里，我们调查了成年工人，p和螨虫中10种病毒的流行度和滴度，其中有些病毒与V. destructor有关。从挪威存活的螨虫和易感螨的蜜蜂种群中收集样品。存活的菌落在抽样的成年蜜蜂中与冠状病毒的破坏病毒有关的关键病毒（DWV-A）的患病率较低，与同胞易感对照相比，在螨虫侵染的p和菌落中，这种病毒的滴度通常较低。但是，这些幸存的菌落也显示出较高的流行率和两种不与毁灭性弧菌相关的病毒（BQCV和LSV1）的滴度。因此，这项研究的结果表明，对病毒感染的总体耐受性不太可能成为挪威自然菌落生存的关键机制，但有证据表明，控制螨虫是主要机制。