Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus

[Etton]

Do many others have hives suffering from CBPV?
I have one hive and every day I have hundreds of dead bees all having shown the typical signs of CBPV. Yet the hive is strong with loads of brood frames on double brood. The dead bees being replaced by new ones.
I'm just waiting (now several weeks) for the hive to recover, if it ever does at all.

 

[For want of a better word]

Do many others have hives suffering from CBPV?
I have one hive and every day I have hundreds of dead bees all having shown the typical signs of CBPV. Yet the hive is strong with loads of brood frames on double brood. The dead bees being replaced by new ones.
I'm just waiting (now several weeks) for the hive to recover, if it ever does at all.

Have fortunately only seen one case of possible CBPV in Devon... beekeeper was treating with garlic granule patties!


It did I believe eventually recover... so no need for petrol just as yet!

Chons da

 

[foghornleghorn]

Have a few here with it, 1 had a mass die off with an inch or two of dead bees on the floor, the rest are losing bees but not massive amounts. This spring has been much harder on the bees than last year here.

 

[Etton]

Do many others have hives suffering from CBPV?
I have one hive and every day I have hundreds of dead bees all having shown the typical signs of CBPV. Yet the hive is strong with loads of brood frames on double brood. The dead bees being replaced by new ones.
I'm just waiting (now several weeks) for the hive to recover, if it ever does at all.

The Queen is a 2018 Buckfast, extremely prolific egg layer on double brood with two supers giving space. Not sure if Buckfasts prone to CBPV because of large colony size.

 

[birdsandbees]

I had one earlier in the Spring, they even went Q- but managed to raise a new one, they seem to be recovering now but my past experience of it has been that they recovered but it came back and they died out.
I haven't tried Garlic only weekly applications of Hive alive which seemed to help, might give it a go in future.

 

[Finman]

.
Only way is to change the queen . Then you get that virus sensitive genes away from your apiary.

Last spring one hive had sacbrood virus, and it went away when I crushed the queen and I put a spare queen into the hive.

 

[Finman]

The Queen is a 2018 Buckfast, extremely prolific egg layer on double brood with two supers giving space. Not sure if Buckfasts prone to CBPV because of large colony size.

Yes but buy a new queen and stop the virus in your apiary.

 

[masterBK]

The short term answer is to relieve congestion within the hive (CPV virus spreads via broken bristles by contact). The long term answer (for all bee virus problems) to requeen from a resistant strain as the level of susceptibility to a virus is down to genes. Never breed from any queen whose offspring get any of the many bee diseases.

 

[Lancs Lad]

It appears that CBPV is much more prevalent in Bee Farmers stocks, I believe Fatshark is doing research in to it for the Bee Farmers Association.

 

[Etton]

The Queen is a 2018 Buckfast, extremely prolific egg layer on double brood with two supers giving space. Not sure if Buckfasts prone to CBPV because of large colony size.

Today's dead bees, by lunch time... (but more probably hatched than died!)
Reluctant to buy another Buckfast.

 

[Beefriendly]

Not sure if Buckfasts prone to CBPV because of large colony size.

No they are not. Been using them for several years and never seen a case in my own apiaries....yet.
Not saying they are all immune to CBPV there are and will be an odd susceptible queen out there.
More down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Not sure if Buckfasts prone to CBPV because of large colony size.

No, seems the virus has no preferences, Amm, Carni, Italian, etc, big or small colonies, nucs, sometimes starts with one colony in an apiary and spreads to all of them, sometimes one colony in a large apiary with their entrance only five inches from the next hive, yet no other colonies in the apiary get it, can appear in bees right out in the middle of nowhere, sometimes lasts a couple of weeks or can go on for several months, usually appears quite suddenly... and stops just as suddenly, some colonies die out, but most survive and never have it again.

 

[B+.]

No, seems the virus has no preferences, Amm, Carni, Italian, etc, big or small colonies, nucs, sometimes starts with one colony in an apiary and spreads to all of them, sometimes one colony in a large apiary with their entrance only five inches from the next hive, yet no other colonies in the apiary get it, can appear in bees right out in the middle of nowhere, sometimes lasts a couple of weeks or can go on for several months, usually appears quite suddenly... and stops just as suddenly, some colonies die out, but most survive and never have it again.

I've seen it once in over 30 years of beekeeping. That was at a bee disease inspectors course at Sand Hutton, York (APHA). From memory, the colony was nothing special. They had brought it to the site so they had a real-live case to illustrate the symptoms, so we could recognise it if/when we saw it. I've not seen it since.
I say this because it is easy to get the impression that bee diseases are common. They're not. Perhaps some areas encounter problems more than others but, around here, there seems to be very little.

 

[For want of a better word]

The Queen is a 2018 Buckfast, extremely prolific egg layer on double brood with two supers giving space. Not sure if Buckfasts prone to CBPV because of large colony size.

The ORIGINAl Buckfast hybrid was a selected native Amm that was immune to the virus that probably caused the pandemic Isle of Wight disease and a prolific Aml ...... hence the Buckfast myth was born.

Any bee can pick up viruses... many from imported exotics,,, or even ones that have been in the population ca 10,000 years

Annoying is it not???

Chons da

 

[Etton]

Thanks for all replies, reassuring it could stop as quickly as it started!

 

[Beefriendly]

The ORIGINAl Buckfast hybrid was a selected native Amm

What crap information does issue forth from Cornwall. Suspect you spend most of your day with a piece of straw between your teeth leaning over a gatepost looking gormless...
The only survivors in BR Adam's apiary when IofW disease struck were crosses between Amm and Italian queens. The "pure native " Amm's all died in in that apiary.

More disinformation from the black bee brigade.

 

[For want of a better word]

What crap information does issue forth from Cornwall. Suspect you spend most of your day with a piece of straw between your teeth leaning over a gatepost looking gormless...
The only survivors in BR Adam's apiary when IofW disease struck were crosses between Amm and Italian queens. The "pure native " Amm's all died in in that apiary.

More disinformation from the black bee brigade.

Which book did you read that in..... the cut and paste tome on early beekeepering myths?

The pure Buckfasts all died out at much the same time I suppose.

Modern Buckfasts should be described as hybrid bees produced in the way of Brother Adam... shurley???

 

[mazzamazda]

Which book did you read that in..... the cut and paste tome on early beekeepering myths?

The pure Buckfasts all died out at much the same time I suppose.

Modern Buckfasts should be described as hybrid bees produced in the way of Brother Adam... shurley???

I've read it in Brother Adam's books, I believe it was why he was so interested in Ligustica

 

[Hivemaker.]

Dr Giles Budge, senior lecturer at Newcastle University and crop and
bee health lead at Fera Science Ltd, with an update on research initiatives.


Chronic bee paralysis has a long history with honeybees, going back millennia.
Indeed, the first record
of hairless black bees
that may have described
this disease has been attributed to
Aristotle from 350 BC(1). The disease
became known by many different names,
including: ‘black robbers’ and ‘little
blacks’ in Britain; schwarzsucht (black
addiction), maladie noire (black disease)
and mal nero in continental Europe; and
‘hairless black syndrome’ in the United
States of America. It took the efforts of a
brilliant British bee scientist in the 1960’s,
Leslie Bailey, to relate these various
maladies to a single causative organism –
chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV).
Chronic bee paralysis is found on
every continent where honey bees
are kept. In the UK, eight per cent of
colonies were reported to be showing
‘paralytic’ symptoms in 1947, reducing
to two per cent of colonies by 1966(2).
A large-scale survey completed by the
National Bee Unit (NBU) between 2009
and 2011 suggested that the virus was
not commonly detected when random
apiaries were tested – only seven in 1000
apiaries tested positive. Interestingly, the
prevalence was found to be far higher
when apiaries showing poor health
were targeted – in this case 160 in 1000
apiaries tested positive for the virus(3).
Recent Changes
The past few years have seen a dramatic
increase in the incidence of chronic bee
paralysis, especially for professional
beekeepers. In 2016, a Bee Farmers’
Association (BFA) survey reported 46
per cent of professional UK beekeepers
had experienced problems with chronic
bee paralysis in the past two years.
Many reported reoccurring problems
within apiaries and colony losses in over
40 per cent of those affected, which
is uncharacteristically severe for this
disease. The BFA estimated the cost of
CBPV-caused disease to its membership
was over £1.35 million per annum. A
repeat of the survey of BFA members in
2017 awaits analysis, but early indications
are that the problem persists.
In the United States of America, CBPV
was detected at 0.7 per cent colony-level
prevalence in 2010, but has more than
doubled annually to reach 16 per cent in
2014(4). Prevalence of CBPV is increasing
in Italy, currently at eight per cent(5).
Apiarists in Germany are experiencing
more frequent disease outbreaks
(R Buchler, pers comm). Taken together,
these observations demonstrate a clear
recent change in disease incidence and
consequent impact on apiculture.
Chronic bee paralysis has been a very
difficult disease to study because the
onset of symptoms can be sudden and
the outbreak location unpredictable. As
such, there are no scientific papers that
provide robust evidence to demonstrate
successful treatments.
Queen replacement has been
suggested, but given that all races of bee
appear to be susceptible, any success
by this method may be attributed to a
drop in adult bee population due
to the brood break associated with
queen replacement.
A recent promising management
method appears to be a modification
of the shook swarm, described by Chris
Neel in a previous issue of Bee Farmer(6).
Nevertheless, our inability to explain or
predict disease outbreaks means
that bee farmers cannot implement
evidence-based colony and apiary
management strategies to prevent this
damaging disease.
The Future
Over the past few years, I have been in
discussions with bee farmers and NBU
inspectors about the recent resurgence
of chronic bee paralysis, listening to
the many sad stories of colonies being
devastated by this disease and what
experienced beekeepers felt might be
the causes.
In January 2016, I was asked to
come and present what is known about
chronic bee paralysis to Southern Region
members of the BFA. I prepared by
reading the literature on this disease
going back over 100 years. What became
clear was, with the exception of Leslie
Bailey’s 1960’s research and some work
done by the brilliant Magali Ribière in the
noughties, most literature was the result
of haphazard, opportunistic studies as a
consequence of the unpredictable nature
of the disease. Indeed, the research of
the NBU was scuppered in 2009 when
the disease all but vanished from the
apiaries under study.
Research and Funding
Availability
If there is a positive, the recent increases
in chronic bee paralysis mean this disease
is easier to study now than at any time
in the past. I felt the time was right
for greater research effort focusing on
chronic bee paralysis and put together a
consortium to bid into an open call from
the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC).

 

[Hivemaker.]

On 18 July this year, I received a letter
confirming the consortium had won
this funding.
The consortium includes:
• Newcastle University (Dr Giles Budge,
principal investigator; Professor Steve
Rushton, biological modeller)
• University of St Andrews (Professor
David Evans, virologist)
• The Bee Farmers’ Association
(members opting to participate)
• National Bee Unit, Animal and Plant
Health Agency (Mike Brown)
• ANSES (French agency for food,
environmental and occupational health
and safety), European Union Reference
Laboratory for Honey Bee Health
(Dr Magali Ribière)
• additional support from Dr Jay Evans,
USDA (US Department of Agriculture),
USA, and Dr Joachim de Miranda, SLU
(Swedish university of agricultural
sciences), Sweden.
Objectives
The chronic bee paralysis research
project is divided into four objectives.
Objective 1: modelling the epidemiology
and drivers of chronic bee paralysis
We will gather new information on what
stressors are associated with colonies
suffering from chronic bee paralysis
and will consider pathogens in adult
bees, pesticide exposure in adult bees,
weather, local land use and apiary
management practices. As such, we will
be collecting samples from healthy and
diseased colonies, along with husbandry
information from bee farmers this year
and next. Next year, we will set up field
trials with bee farmers on apiaries that
are suffering from reoccurring disease to
monitor the dynamics of disease spread
in individual colonies and apiaries. This
will provide new information on
where and when the virus becomes
associated with the colony. This first
objective will inform us about the
pre-requisite colony stressors necessary
for disease to develop, with the aim of
writing new protocols for early
disease detection.
Objective 2: CBPV evolution,
transmission and virulence
We will assess whether the recent
emergence of chronic bee paralysis is
the result of shifts in the transmissibility
or virulence of modern CBPV strains.
We will describe temporal and spatial
genetic variation, by sequencing
representative historic and recent
samples. We will recover infectious
historic strains and use these to compare
the risk posed by past and current
strains. Finally, we will assess the risk
posed by CBPV to other non-Apis
pollinators, such as solitary bees
and bumblebees.
Objective 3: quantifying the impact of
co-stressors on disease development
We will investigate co-stressors of
chronic bee paralysis using controlled
in vivo challenge tests to include:
lack of foraging due to poor weather,
overcrowding and the presence of the
gut parasite, Nosema ceranae. We will
assess the impact of these factors on
transmission and virulence for different
virus strains.
Objective 4: developing a management
toolkit to mitigate chronic bee paralysis
We will work closely with the BFA
to translate research outcomes into
improved professional practices when
managing chronic bee paralysis. This
will include a series of controlled
field experiments using bee farmer
apiaries where different management
practices are employed. We expect this
programme of work to provide a
step-change in our understanding
of chronic bee paralysis disease
development, virus evolution and the
role of co-stressors to develop informed,
evidence-based management practices.
Chronic Bee Paralysis:
Past, Present
and Future
Dr Giles Budge, senior lecturer at Newcastle University and crop and
bee health lead at Fera Science Ltd, with an update on research initiatives
Final Comments
I would like to thank everyone who
has discussed this difficult issue with
me in recent years and all those BFA
members who have already pledged their
support for the project. As a team, we
look forward to working together over
the next four years to help mitigate the
impact from this damaging disease. If you
have any questions, please contact me by
email at: [email protected] □
References
1. Ribière, M, et al (2010). Chronic bee
paralysis: a disease and a virus like no
other? Journal of Invertebrate Pathology,
103, Supplement 1, S120–131.
2. Bailey, L, et al (1983). Honey bee paralysis:
its natural spread and diminished incidence
in England and Wales. Journal of Apicultural
Research, 22(3), 191–195.
3. Budge, GE, et al (2015). Pathogens as
Predictors of Honey Bee Colony Strength
in England and Wales. PLOS ONE 10(7),
e0133228.
4. Traynor, KS, et al (2016). Multiyear survey
targeting disease incidence in US honey
bees. Apidologie 47(3), 325–347.
5. Porrini, C, et al (2016). The Status of
Honey Bee Health in Italy: Results from the
Nationwide Bee Monitoring Network.
PLOS ONE, 11(5), e0155411.
6. Neel, C (2016). Chronic bee paralysis virus.
Bee Farmer, 2(2), 11.
Signs of Paralysis
Signs of chronic bee paralysis include a range of individual and colony-level
symptoms. Individual signs include abnormal trembling motion with paralysis
of the wings and body. Affected bees are unable to fly and sometimes crawl on
the ground. They are often displaced in the hive, appearing on frame top-bars
and lugs. Abdomens can be shiny, hairless and bloated, with the bees sometimes
suffering from dysentery and dislocated wings. Affected individuals may suffer
from nibbling attacks by healthy bees, giving them the appearance of ‘robber’
bees (below, left). Affected bees die after a few days of showing signs, leading
to piles of dead bees inside the hive or just outside the entrance (below, right).
Affected colonies can sometimes recover, but often the colony will lose so many
adult bees that it will enter terminal decline.