Abstract
Varroa destructor is one of the major contributors to the significant losses of Western honey bee colonies worldwide. The synthetic pyrethroids tau-fluvalinate and flumethrin were very popular among beekeepers to control levels of parasitism until reports of therapeutic failures increased during the early 1990s. Three different mutations at position 925 of the V. destructor voltage-gated sodium channel have been associated with the resistance to these compounds. Resistant mites collected in the UK and in the Czech Republic showed only a substitution of leucine to valine (L925V), while those collected in the USA carried alternative mutations to isoleucine (L925I) or methionine (L925M). Here, we have used high-throughput genotyping assays to investigate the distribution of resistance mutations across Europe. Our data show that the mutation L925V is present in most of the European countries tested, albeit with an uneven distribution. We also show new evidence for the significant correlation of the mutation with resistance and conclude that it is likely that resistant mites have a reduced fitness. The implications for integrated management of the parasite are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the beekeepers and beekeepers associations that provided many of the samples used in this study. Spanish samples were provided by Dr. Aranzazu Meana, Miguel Llorens (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Mariano Higes (Centro Apícola Marchamalo) and Fernando Calatayud (Asociación de Defensa Sanitaria, ApiADS, Montroi), Austrian samples were provided by Rudolf Moosbeckhofer (Austrian Agency for Health & Food Safety).
Funding
Joel González-Cabrera was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Ramón y Cajal Program (RYC-2013-13834). The work at the Universitat de València was funded by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CGL2015‐65025‐R, MINECO/FEDER, UE) and by Bayer Animal Health GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany. Rothamsted Research receives grant-aided support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom.
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Klemens Krieger, Helen Bumann and Gertraut Altreuther are employees of Bayer Animal Health GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany, and received support in the form of salary. Annemarie Hertel, Gillian Hertlein and Ralf Nauen are employees of Bayer AG, Crop Science Division, R&D, Pest Control, Monheim, Germany, and received support in the form of salary. Joel González-Cabrera is not an employee of Bayer, but part of the work performed at the Universitat de València was supported by a grant from Bayer Animal Health GmbH. There are no more competing interests to declare.
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Communicated by C. Cutler.
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Fig. S1
Representation of example pyrograms of sequenced European mite samples homozygous for L925 (C/C), heterozygous for L925V (C/G) and homozygous for L925V (G/G) (TIFF 3549 kb)
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González-Cabrera, J., Bumann, H., Rodríguez-Vargas, S. et al. A single mutation is driving resistance to pyrethroids in European populations of the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor. J Pest Sci 91, 1137–1144 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-018-0968-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-018-0968-y