Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Dose response of red imported fire ant colonies to Solenopsis invicta virus 3

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Archives of Virology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Baiting tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of increasing Solenopsis invicta virus 3 (SINV-3) dose on fire ant colonies. Actively growing early-stage fire ant (Solenopsis invicta Buren) laboratory colonies were pulse-exposed for 24 hours to six concentrations of SINV-3 (101, 103, 105, 107, 109 genome equivalents/μl) in 1 ml of a 10 % sucrose bait and monitored regularly for two months. SINV-3 concentration had a significant effect on colony health. Brood rating (proportion of brood to worker ants) began to depart from the control group at 19 days for the 109 concentration and 26 days for the 107 concentration. At 60 days, brood rating was significantly lower among colonies treated with 109, 107, and 105 SINV-3 concentrations. The intermediate concentration, 105, appeared to cause a chronic, low-level infection with one colony (n = 9) supporting virus replication. Newly synthesized virus was not detected in any fire ant colonies treated at the 101 concentration, indicating that active infections failed to be established at this level of exposure. The highest bait concentration chosen, 109, appeared most effective from a control aspect; mean colony brood rating at this concentration (1.1 ± 0.9 at the 60 day time point) indicated poor colony health with minimal brood production. No clear relationship was observed between the quantity of plus genome strand detected and brood rating. Conversely, there was a strong relationship between the presence of the replicative genome strand and declining brood rating, which may serve as a predictor of disease severity. Recommendations for field treatment levels to control fire ants with SINV-3 are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+
from $39.99 /Month
  • Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
  • Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
  • Cancel anytime
View plans

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, books and news in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.

References

  1. Tschinkel WR (2006) The fire ants. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  2. Vinson SB (1997) Invasion of the red imported fire ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Spread, biology, and impact. Am Entomol 43:23–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Pereira RM (2003) Areawide suppression of fire ant populations in pastures: project update. J Agric Urban Entomol 20:123–130

    Google Scholar 

  4. Porter SD, Fowler HG, Mackay WP (1992) Fire ant mound densities in the United States and Brazil (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J Econ Entomol 85:1154–1161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Williams DF, Porter SD (1994) Fire Ant Control. Science 264:1653

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Briano J, Calcaterra L, Varone L (2012) Fire ants (Solenopsis spp.) and their natural enemies in southern South America. Psyche 2012:1–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Valles SM (2012) Positive-strand RNA viruses infecting the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Psyche 2012:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Valles SM, Strong CA, Dang PM, Hunter WB, Pereira RM, Oi DH, Shapiro AM, Williams DF (2004) A picorna-like virus from the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta: initial discovery, genome sequence, and characterization. Virology 328:151–157

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Valles SM, Strong CA, Hashimoto Y (2007) A new positive-strand RNA virus with unique genome characteristics from the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Virology 365:457–463

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Valles SM, Hashimoto Y (2009) Isolation and characterization of Solenopsis invicta virus 3, a new positive-strand RNA virus infecting the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Virology 388:354–361

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Valles SM, Shoemaker D, Wurm Y, Strong CA, Varone L, Becnel JJ, Shirk PD (2013) Discovery and molecular characterization of an ambisense densovirus from South American populations of Solenopsis invicta. Biol Control 67:431–439

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Porter SD, Valles SM, Oi DH (2013) Host specificity and colony impacts of Solenopsis invicta virus 3. J Invertebr Pathol 114:1–6

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Valles SM, Porter SD, Choi MY, Oi DH (2013) Successful transmission of Solenopsis invicta virus 3 to Solenopsis invicta fire ant colonies in oil, sugar, and cricket bait formulations. J Invertebr Pathol 113:198–204

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Valles SM, Oi DH (2014) Successful transmission of Solenopsis invicta virus 3 to field colonies of Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Fla Entomol 97:1244–1246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Valles SM, Porter SD, Firth AE (2014) Solenopsis invicta virus 3: pathogenesis and stage specificity in red imported fire ants. Virology 461:66–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Porter SD, Valles SM, Wild AL, Dieckmann R, Plowes NJR (2015) Solenopsis invicta virus 3: further host-specificity tests with native Solenopsis ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Fla Entomol 98:122–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Valles SM, Bell S, Firth AE (2014) Solenopsis invicta virus 3: mapping of structural proteins, ribosomal frameshifting, and similarities to Acyrthosiphon pisum virus and Kelp fly virus. PLoS ONE 9:e93497

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Valles SM, Oi DH, Porter SD (2010) Seasonal variation and the co-occurrence of four pathogens and a group of parasites among monogyne and polygyne fire ant colonies. Biol Control 54:342–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Valles SM, Varone L, Ramirez L, Briano J (2009) Multiplex detection of Solenopsis invicta viruses -1, -2, and -3. J Virol Methods 162:276–279

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Macom TE, Porter SD (1995) Food and energy requirements of laboratory fire ant colonies (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Environ Entomol 24:387–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Valles SM, Porter SD (2012) Procedures to mitigate the impact of Solenopsis invicta virus 3 on fire ant rearing facilities. Fla Entomol 9:252–254

    Google Scholar 

  22. Craggs JK, Ball JK, Thomson BJ, Irving WL, Grabowska AM (2001) Development of a strand-specific RT-PCR based assay to detect the replicative form of hepatitis C virus RNA. J Virol Methods 94:111–120

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Laemmli UK (1970) Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature 227:680–685

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. SAS (1988) SAS procedures guide for personal computers. SAS Institute, Cary

    Google Scholar 

  25. Porter SD, Valles SM, Oi DH (2013) Host specificity and colony impacts of the fire ant pathogen, Solenopsis invicta virus 3. J Invert Pathol 114:1–6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Tanada Y, Kaya HK (1993) Insect pathology. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  27. Chang M, Marquardt AP, Wood BL, Williams O, Cotler SJ, Taylor SL, Carithers RL, Gretch DR (2000) In situ distribution of hepatitis C virus replicative-intermediate RNA in hepatic tissue and its correlation with liver disease. J Virol 74:944–955

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Pal S, Shuhart MC, Thomassen L, Emerson SS, Su T, Feuerborn N, Kae J, Gretch DR (2006) Intrahepatic hepatitis C virus replication correlates with chronic hepatitis C disease severity in vivo. J Virol 80:2280–2290

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Porter SD, Tschinkel WR (1993) Fire ant thermal preferences—behavioral-control of growth and metabolism. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 32:321–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Pessoa D, Souto-Maior C, Gjini E, Lopes JS, Cena B, Codeco CT, Gomes MG (2014) Unveiling time in dose-response models to infer host susceptibility to pathogens. PLoS Comput Biol 10:e1003773

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Oi DH, Valles SM (2009) Fire ant control with entomopathogens in the USA. In: Hajek AE, Glare TR, O’Callaghan M (eds) Use of microbes for control and eradication of invasive arthropods. Springer Science, New York, pp 237–258

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank Drs. J. J. Becnel and R. Nagoshi (USDA-ARS, Gainesville, FL) for critical reviews of the manuscript, and C. A. Strong and D. Hall for technical assistance. The use of trade, firm, or corporation names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the United States Department of Agriculture or the Agricultural Research Service of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, USDA-ARS, 1600 SW 23rd Drive, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA

    Steven M. Valles & Sanford D. Porter

Authors
  1. Steven M. Valles
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sanford D. Porter
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven M. Valles.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Valles, S.M., Porter, S.D. Dose response of red imported fire ant colonies to Solenopsis invicta virus 3. Arch Virol 160, 2407–2413 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-015-2520-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-015-2520-1

Keywords