> The ability of the honey bee mite, V. destructor, to feed repeatedly off the haemolymph of its bee host is well documented. The puncture wound at the feeding site produced by the varroa bite in the cuticle of the bee remains open and is revisited as a communal feeding site over several days by all the mites infecting that bee. Artificial punctures in the pupal bee heal and no bacterial infection was observed in such puncture sites. In contrast, varroa bite punctures do not heal and bacterial infections are routinely observed.

> An important, well-reported phenomenon is that tick saliva greatly enhances the transmission and establishment of pathogens, including viruses, which is thought to be brought about by immunosuppression. In honey bees, deformed-winged virus (DWV) remains largely benign but becomes pathogenic when V. destructor feeds on the bee. We postulate that the trigger for DWV and some other bee viruses becoming pathogenic is the suppression of the bee’s immune system by some factors in the V. destructor saliva.

> We report here, for the first time, studies into the bioactivity of V. destructor saliva. A simple procedure is presented for the collection of V. destructor saliva demonstrating that the small size of these mites is not a major obstacle to proteomic or functional studies. Further, we clearly demonstrate the bioactivity on insect haemocyte function of V. destructor saliva collected by this procedure.

Salivary secretions from the honeybee mite, Varroa destructor: effects on insect haemocytes and preliminary biochemical characterization
Parasitology (2011), 138, 602–608.
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