Populations of bees around the world are exhibiting declines, which are the result of multiple interacting factors, including pressure from pathogens. To date, more than 24 viruses have been identified in western honey bees (Apis mellifera). These viral infections can result in a range of symptoms, from no obvious phenotype to rapid death and colony loss

Bee viral ecology is particularly complex, since many viruses seem to be shared across diverse bee species. Several studies have demonstrated that viruses can spill-over from managed A. mellifera or bumble bee (Bombus spp) colonies to wild bee populations

BQCV represented the most common known virus among all of the samples, with 22 of the 36 samples testing positive (61%). DWV, another common virus, was detected in 16 (44%) of the samples, and was the second most prevalent virus detected in this study. IAPV (10 samples, 28%), SBV and LSV (6 samples, 17%), and ABPV and AMFV (1 sample, 3%) conclude the known bee viruses identified in our samples

Our study suggests that, despite the focus on North American and European A. mellifera viral populations, these populations still remain to be fully characterized: indeed, the greatest number of newly identified viruses were found in North American samples. Additionally, when considering all the sample sets, it appears that all the newly identified viruses were found in multiple bee species

Together with our results, more than 30 viruses have been found in bees, however, this number likely represents a small subset of the viral diversity present in bee communities. Our results suggest, however, that viral communities are generally shared globally across species, with species from geographically distant locations hosting similar suites of viruses and viral families.

Galbraith, David A., et al. "Investigating the viral ecology of global bee communities with high-throughput metagenomics." bioRxiv (2018): 243139.
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