Data from: Knock-on community impacts of a novel vector: spillover of emerging DWV-B from Varroa-infested honeybees to wild bumblebees

Novel transmission routes can directly impact the evolutionary ecology of
infectious diseases, with potentially dramatic effect on host populations
and knock-on effects on the wider host community. The invasion of Varroa
destructor, an ectoparasitic viral vector in Western honeybees, provides a
unique opportunity to examine how a novel vector affects disease
epidemiology in a host community. This specialist honeybee mite vectors
deformed wing virus (DWV), an important re-emerging honeybee pathogen that
also infects wild bumblebees. Comparing island honeybee and wild bumblebee
populations with and without V. destructor, we show that V. destructor
drives DWV prevalence and titre in honeybees and sympatric bumblebees.
Viral genotypes are shared across hosts, with the potentially more
virulent DWV-B overtaking DWV-A in prevalence in a current epidemic. This
demonstrates disease emergence across a host community driven by the
acquisition of a specialist novel transmission route in one host, with
dramatic community level knock-on effects.