new work shows that removal of hemolymph can cause rapid expansion of DWV

> We show that experimental removal of increasing volumes of haemolymph from individual bees results in increasing viral densities. In contrast, we find no support for alternative proposed mechanisms of viral expansion via mite immune-suppression or within-host viral evolution. Overall, these results provide a new model for the mechanisms driving pathogen-parasite interactions in bees, which ultimately underpin honey bee health decline and colony losses.

> The critical importance of haemolymph removal on DWV dynamics seems to be confirmed by the proliferation of DWV that can be observed after simple wounding with capillary needles and the resulting bleeding from the open wounds 

> In 1926, the mathematician Vito Volterra, to explain the unexpected fluctuations of certain fish species in the Adriatic Sea, developed his famous model, which clearly showed that the subtraction of both predators and prey, through fishing, could result in the proliferation of the latter (17). Here we suggest, through a modelling approach corroborated by new experimental data, that the pure subtraction of haemolymph - containing both virus and immune factors - from the host, by the feeding mite (Fig. S10E), similarly to the fish industry with regards to prey and predatory fishes, could trigger the proliferation of DWV which can be sustained by the depletion of a shared immune resource (9, 23) and progressively reinforced by the viral induced immune-suppression taking place as soon as the pathogen surpasses a critical threshold (9).

Haemolymph removal by the parasite Varroa destructor can trigger the proliferation of the Deformed Wing Virus in mite infested bees (Apis mellifera), contributing to enhanced pathogen virulence.   http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/257667.

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