Data from: Global honey bee viral landscape altered by a parasitic mite

Emerging diseases are among the greatest threats to honey bees. Unfortunately, where and when an emerging disease will appear are almost impossible to predict. The arrival of the parasitic Varroa mite into the Hawaiian honey bee population allowed us to investigate changes in the prevalence, load, and strain diversity of honey bee viruses. The mite increased the prevalence of a single viral species, deformed wing virus (DWV), from ~10 to 100% within honey bee populations, which was accompanied by a millionfold increase in viral titer and a massive reduction in DWV diversity, leading to the predominance of a single DWV strain. Therefore, the global spread of Varroa has selected DWV variants that have emerged to allow it to become one of the most widely distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet.

新发传染病是蜜蜂面临的最严峻威胁之一。遗憾的是，我们几乎无法预判新发传染病的暴发时间与地点。寄生性瓦螨（Varroa mite）入侵夏威夷蜜蜂种群这一事件，为我们探究蜜蜂病毒的流行率、病毒载量及毒株多样性的变化提供了研究契机。该瓦螨使单一病毒物种——畸形翅病毒（Deformed Wing Virus, DWV）的流行率在蜜蜂种群中从约10%攀升至100%；与此同时，病毒滴度提升百万倍，DWV的毒株多样性大幅降低，最终导致单一DWV毒株成为种群中的优势毒株。由此可见，瓦螨的全球传播对DWV变异株产生了筛选作用，使得这些变异株进化为全球分布最广、传染性最强的昆虫病毒之一。