First confirmed report of a bacterial brood disease in stingless bees

Jenny Lee Shanks; Anthony Mark Haigh; Markus Riegler; Robert Neil Spooner-Hart

doi:10.1016/j.jip.2017.01.004

First confirmed report of a bacterial brood disease in stingless bees

Jenny Lee Shanks, Anthony Mark Haigh, Markus Riegler, Robert Neil Spooner-Hart

Western Sydney University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Susceptibility to brood pathogens in eusocial stingless bees (Meliponini), alternative pollinators to honey bees, is unknown. Brood losses in managed colonies of the Australian stingless bee, Tetragonula carbonaria, were studied over 20 months. We isolated a disease-causing bacterium, Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Firmicutes, Bacillaceae), from worker and queen larvae, brood cell provisions and honey stores. Pathogenicity experiments confirmed this bacterium as the causal organism. It took 22 days from infection to first appearance of brood disease symptoms. This is the first confirmed record of a brood pathogen in stingless bees.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	7-10
Number of pages	4
Journal	Journal of Invertebrate Pathology
Volume	144
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jip.2017.01.004
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Inc.

Keywords

diseases
honeybee
stingless bees

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10.1016/j.jip.2017.01.004

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title = "First confirmed report of a bacterial brood disease in stingless bees",

abstract = "Susceptibility to brood pathogens in eusocial stingless bees (Meliponini), alternative pollinators to honey bees, is unknown. Brood losses in managed colonies of the Australian stingless bee, Tetragonula carbonaria, were studied over 20 months. We isolated a disease-causing bacterium, Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Firmicutes, Bacillaceae), from worker and queen larvae, brood cell provisions and honey stores. Pathogenicity experiments confirmed this bacterium as the causal organism. It took 22 days from infection to first appearance of brood disease symptoms. This is the first confirmed record of a brood pathogen in stingless bees.",

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AU - Haigh, Anthony Mark

AU - Riegler, Markus

AU - Spooner-Hart, Robert Neil

PY - 2017/3/1

Y1 - 2017/3/1

N2 - Susceptibility to brood pathogens in eusocial stingless bees (Meliponini), alternative pollinators to honey bees, is unknown. Brood losses in managed colonies of the Australian stingless bee, Tetragonula carbonaria, were studied over 20 months. We isolated a disease-causing bacterium, Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Firmicutes, Bacillaceae), from worker and queen larvae, brood cell provisions and honey stores. Pathogenicity experiments confirmed this bacterium as the causal organism. It took 22 days from infection to first appearance of brood disease symptoms. This is the first confirmed record of a brood pathogen in stingless bees.

AB - Susceptibility to brood pathogens in eusocial stingless bees (Meliponini), alternative pollinators to honey bees, is unknown. Brood losses in managed colonies of the Australian stingless bee, Tetragonula carbonaria, were studied over 20 months. We isolated a disease-causing bacterium, Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Firmicutes, Bacillaceae), from worker and queen larvae, brood cell provisions and honey stores. Pathogenicity experiments confirmed this bacterium as the causal organism. It took 22 days from infection to first appearance of brood disease symptoms. This is the first confirmed record of a brood pathogen in stingless bees.

KW - diseases

KW - honeybee

KW - stingless bees

UR - http://handle.westernsydney.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:38684

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JO - Journal of Invertebrate Pathology

JF - Journal of Invertebrate Pathology

ER -

First confirmed report of a bacterial brood disease in stingless bees

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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