Affiliation:
1. School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Manchester M5 4WT, UK
Abstract
The near-globally distributed ecto-parasitic mite of the
Apis mellifera
honeybee,
Varroa destructor,
has formed a lethal association with Deformed wing virus, a once rare and benign RNA virus. In concert, the two have killed millions of wild and managed colonies, particularly across the Northern Hemisphere, forcing the need for regular acaricide application to ensure colony survival. However, despite the short association (in evolutionary terms), a small but increasing number of
A. mellifera
populations across the globe have been surviving many years without any mite control methods. This long-term survival, or
Varroa
resistance, is consistently associated with the same suite of traits (recapping, brood removal and reduced mite reproduction) irrespective of location. Here we conduct an analysis of data extracted from 60 papers to illustrate how these traits connect together to explain decades of mite resistance data. We have potentially a unified understanding of natural
Varroa
resistance that will help the global industry achieve widespread miticide-free beekeeping and indicate how different honeybee populations across four continents have resolved a recent threat using the same suite of behaviours.
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
23 articles.
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