Affiliation:
1. College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia
Abstract
Pathogen spillover from managed bees is increasingly considered as a possible cause of pollinator decline. Though spillover has been frequently documented, evidence of the pathogen's virulence in the new host or mechanism of transmission is rare. Stingless bees (Apocrita: Meliponini) are crucial pollinators pan-tropically and overlap with managed honeybees (
Apis mellifera
) in much of their range.
Nosema ceranae
is the most prevalent disease of adult
A. mellifera.
We used laboratory experiments and field surveys to investigate the susceptibility of stingless bees (
Tetragonula hockingsi
) to
N. ceranae
, infection prevalence and transmissibility via flowers. We found that 67% of
T. hockingsi
fed sucrose with
N. ceranae
had detectable spores in their ventriculus, and they died at 2.96 times the rate of sucrose-only fed bees. Five of six field hives harboured bees with
N. ceranae
present at least once during our five-month survey, with prevalence up to 20%. In our floral transmission experiment, 67% of inflorescences exposed to infected
A. mellifera
yielded
N. ceranae
spores, and all resulted in
T. hockingsi
with
N. ceranae
spores in their guts. We conclude that
N. ceranae
is virulent in
T. hockingsi
under laboratory conditions, is common in the local
T. hockingsi
population and is transmissible via flowers.
Funder
Australian Research Council
Wet Tropics Management Authority
Skyrail Rainforest Foundation
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Environmental Science,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine
Cited by
42 articles.
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