Pan-european distribution of deformed wing virus genotypes A and B

The transmission of deformed wing virus (DWV) to honey bees by the Varroa destructor mite is responsible for most of the colony winter mortalities across the world. Four genotypes (A, B, C, and D) of DWV and numerous recombinants have been described. The most recent studies reported the prevalence of DWV-B over these of DWV-A in several countries including European ones while C and D genotypes were rare or extinct. However, no global evaluation of DWV-A and DWV-B distributions is available at the European level. In this study, we characterized the DWV genotypes infecting honey bees collected between 2011 and 2017 in 13 European countries. By RNA sequencing, we were able to characterize recombinant and parental complete consensus genomic sequences. We mapped the recombinant junctions and performed a phylogenetic study to evaluate the genetic relationship between the DWV genotypes obtained from these different European locations. Our study highlights the increasing importance of DWV-B in the honey bee viral landscape.