Mike >Viruses - that's a fair criticism.  I've not seen much hard research supporting the cross-susceptibility to viruses but it's a plausible scenario.

Here's one data point that supports the horizontal transmission of viruses between non-Apis species.


>We examined managed A. mellifera colonies, nearby non-Apis hymenopteran pollinators, and other associated arthropods for the presence of five commonly occurring picorna-like RNA viruses of honey bees – black queen cell virus, deformed wing virus, Israeli acute paralysis virus, Kashmir bee virus and sacbrood virus. Notably, we observed their presence in several arthropod species. Additionally, detection of negative-strand RNA using strand-specific RT-PCR assays for deformed wing virus and Israeli acute paralysis virus suggests active replication of deformed wing virus in at least six non-Apis species and active replication of Israeli acute paralysis virus in one non-Apis species. Phylogenetic analysis of deformed wing virus also revealed that this virus is freely disseminating across the species sampled in this study. In sum, our study indicates that these viruses are not specific to the pollinator community and that other arthropod species have the potential to be involved in disease transmission in pollinator populations.


>Cross-species transmission of honey bee viruses in associated arthropods
Abby L. Levitt et al.


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT

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