Benaets, K, Van Geystelen, A, Cardoen, D, De Smet, L, de Graaf, D, Schoofs, L, Larmuseau, L, Brettell, LE, Martin, SJ 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9418-053X and Wenseleers, T
2017,
'Covert deformed wing virus infections have long-term
deleterious effects on honeybee foraging and survival'
, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284 (1848)
, p. 20162149.
Abstract
Several studies have suggested that covert stressors can contribute to bee colony declines. Here we
provide a novel case study and show using radio-frequency identification (RFID) tracking technology
that covert deformed wing virus (DWV) infections in adult honeybee workers seriously impact longterm
foraging and survival under natural foraging conditions. In particular, our experiments show
that adult workers injected with low doses of DWV experienced increased mortality rates, that DWV
caused workers to start foraging at a premature age, and that the virus reduced the workers’ total
activity span as foragers. Altogether, these results demonstrate that covert deformed wing virus
infections have strongly deleterious effects on honey bee foraging and survival. These results are
consistent with previous studies that suggested DWV to be an important contributor to the ongoing
bee declines in Europe and the US. Overall, our study underlines the strong impact that covert
pathogen infections can have on individual and group-level performance in bees.
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