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Recent Advances in Entomological Research pp 105–120Cite as

Viruses and Viral Diseases of the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera

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Abstract

Viruses pose a serious threat to the health and well-being of honey bees, Apis mellifera, the most economically valuable pollinators of agricultural and horticultural crops worldwide. Recently, honey bee viruses have gotten a lot of international attention due to the significant disease status that viruses cause in honey bees and the recent observation of the tight correlation between Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in the U.S. and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. Over the past decades, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of virus infections in honey bees. This review chapter summarizes previous findings and recent progress in the understanding of the morphology, genome organization, taxonomy, transmission, and pathogenesis of honey bee viruses. The prospects of future research and challenges associated with the study of honey bee viruses are also discussed in detail.

Keywords

  • Honey bee
  • viral disease
  • Colony Collapse Disorder

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bee Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA

    Yanping Chen

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  1. Yanping Chen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Applied Entomology, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China

    Tongxian Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Le Kang

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© 2011 Higher Education Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Chen, Y. (2011). Viruses and Viral Diseases of the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera . In: Liu, T., Kang, L. (eds) Recent Advances in Entomological Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17815-3_6

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