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Article
Interacting stressors matter: diet quality and virus infection in honeybee health
Royal Society Open Science
  • Adam G. Dolezal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Jimena Carrillo-Tripp, Iowa State University
  • Timothy M. Judd, Southeast Missouri State University
  • W. Allen Miller, Iowa State University
  • Bryony C. Bonning, Iowa State University
  • Amy L. Toth, Iowa State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
2-6-2019
DOI
10.1098/rsos.181803
Abstract

Honeybee population declines have been linked to multiple stressors, including reduced diet diversity and increased exposure to understudied viral pathogens. Despite interest in these factors, few experimental studies have explored the interaction between diet diversity and viral infection in honeybees. Here, we used a mixture of laboratory cage and small semi-field nucleus hive experiments to determine how these factors interact. In laboratory experiments, we found that high-quality diets (polyfloral pollen and high-quality single-source pollen) have the potential to reduce mortality in the face of infection with Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). There was a significant interaction between diet and virus infection on mortality, even in the presence of high virus titres, suggesting that good diets can help bees tolerate virus infection. Further, we found that extreme stress in the form of pollen starvation in conjunction with IAPV infection increase exiting behaviour from small experimental hives. Finally, we showed that higher-quality pollen diets have significantly higher iron and calcium content, suggesting micronutrient deficiencies could be an under-explored area of bee nutrition.

Comments

This article is published as Dolezal AG, Carrillo-Tripp J, Judd TM, Allen Miller W, Bonning BC, Toth AL. 2019 Interacting stressors matter: diet quality and virus infection in honeybee health. R. Soc. open sci. 6: 181803. doi: 10.1098/rsos.181803.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Copyright Owner
The Authors
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Adam G. Dolezal, Jimena Carrillo-Tripp, Timothy M. Judd, W. Allen Miller, et al.. "Interacting stressors matter: diet quality and virus infection in honeybee health" Royal Society Open Science Vol. 6 Iss. 2 (2019) p. 181803
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/wallen_miller/25/