Pesticide–Virus Interactions in Honey Bees: Challenges and Opportunities for Understanding Drivers of Bee Declines

Gyan P Harwood, Adam G Dolezal

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Honey bees are key agricultural pollinators, but beekeepers continually suffer high annual colony losses owing to a number of environmental stressors, including inadequate nutrition, pressures from parasites and pathogens, and exposure to a wide variety of pesticides. In this review, we examine how two such stressors, pesticides and viruses, may interact in additive or synergistic ways to affect honey bee health. Despite what appears to be a straightforward comparison, there is a dearth of studies examining this issue likely owing to the complexity of such interactions. Such complexities include the wide array of pesticide chemical classes with different modes of actions, the coupling of many bee viruses with ectoparasitic Varroa mites, and the intricate social structure of honey bee colonies. Together, these issues pose a challenge to researchers examining the effects pesticide-virus interactions at both the individual and colony level.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number566
JournalViruses
Volume12
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 21 2020

Keywords

  • honey bee virus
  • virus tolerance/resistance
  • pesticide resistance
  • toxicology
  • insecticide-virus synergism
  • Insecticide–virus synergism
  • Virus tolerance/resistance
  • Toxicology
  • Honey bee virus
  • Pesticide resistance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Infectious Diseases
  • Virology

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