There was some traffic on ProMED mail about this virus paper already cited. http://www.promedmail.org

Taken from ProMED mail:

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Journal reference
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Li JL, Cornman RS, Evans JD, et al: Systemic Spread and Propagation of a
Plant-Pathogenic Virus in European Honeybees, _Apis mellifera_.
mBio, 2014; 5(1): e00898-13 DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00898-13 [available at
<http://mbio.asm.org/content/5/1/e00898-13.full>].


Communicated by:
Laura H Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP
Research Scholar
Program on Science and Global Security
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Princeton
University USA <[log in to unmask]>

[An interesting discovery that on the surface sounds reasonable. If this is
the case, perhaps a mechanism can be found to prevent this from happening.

On the other hand, if this virus is common, why hasn't it happened a long
time prior to the 1st syndrome of colony collapse disorder? Or is it the
case that it had to reach a certain magnitude before we recognized what it
was doing to colonies? - Mod.TG

The results described in the original paper are interesting, but they do
not adequately support the conclusions drawn by the authors.
Equally, the claim in the media report above, "A viral pathogen that
typically infects plants has been found in honeybees" is incorrect.
Some of the main reasons are listed below.

1. The published results do not prove the presence of a virus in the bees,
that is, that there are virus particles associated with the unidentified
sequences or that these are encapsidated in any way.
Particles shown in electron micrographs in the paper could be the bee
viruses or from other sources. Bee-to-bee transmission has not been shown,
but infectivity would be a key criterion for a virus.

2. If there is indeed a virus, the results do not show that it is a plant
virus, that is, the authors have not checked whether the bee isolate is
pathogenic on any plant indicators.

3. If there is indeed a plant virus, there is no proof that it is TRSV
(_Tobacco ringspot virus_). Only a partial sequence is available and the
authors do not seem to have checked their local plant populations for what
viruses are there. TRSV isolates from other areas as found in GenBank say
nothing about their local strains. For viruses, a sequence identity of at
least 80 percent over the total genome is required to say that 2 isolates
are the same species. The results do not show this and so the published
phylogeny is flawed.

4. Without knowing what virus strains are present in the local plant hosts,
the question must be considered if the results are not due to contamination
with virus forms from local pollen. There are no adequate controls for
virus sequences in bees without any pollen or in local pollen without bees.

5. TRSV and the 3 bee viruses reported in co-infection are in the same
taxonomic order (_Picornavirales_; ss +sense RNA genome and -sense
replicative forms), and the bee isolate has not been found on its own.
The possibility cannot be excluded that replicative viral forms found in
the bees are artifacts due to the presence of the other bee viruses with
the same replication mechanism, since results are based only on PCR
analysis of partial sequences.

6. Considering everything, what the authors have found could well be a new
virus related to TRSV, but affecting bees and not plants, similar to a new
aphid virus (_Acyrthosiphon pisum virus_) of as yet unclassified taxonomic
family, but related to the families of both TRSV and the 3 bee viruses.

7. If the authors have indeed found a new bee virus, more work would be
needed to determine its relationship with other members of the
_Picornavirales_, including both insect and plant pathogens, and ascertain
whether it contributes, let alone causes, colony collapse, and not just
co-infects bees which are already affected by bee viruses as a secondary or
opportunistic pathogen.

In summary, the results indicate the presence of sequences in the bees with
partial homology to some known viral sequences, but do not prove the
presence of any kind of virus. - Mod.DHA]

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Adam Finkelstein

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