Disease associations between honeybees and bumblebees as a threat to wild pollinators

摘要

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) pose a risk to human welfare, both directly and indirectly, by affecting managed livestock and wildlife that provide valuable resources and ecosystem services, such as the pollination of crops. Honeybees (Apis mellifera), the prevailing managed insect crop pollinator, suffer from a range of emerging and exotic high-impact pathogens, and population maintenance requires active management by beekeepers to control them. Wild pollinators such as bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are in global decline, one cause of which may be pathogen spillover from managed pollinators like honeybees or commercial colonies of bumblebees. Here we use a combination of infection experiments and landscape-scale field data to show that honeybee EIDs are indeed widespread infectious agents within the pollinator assemblage. The prevalence of deformed wing virus (DWV) and the exotic parasite Nosema ceranae in honeybees and bumblebees is linked; as honeybees have higher DWV prevalence, and sympatric bumblebees and honeybees are infected by the same DWV strains, Apis is the likely source of at least one major EID in wild pollinators. Lessons learned from vertebrates highlight the need for increased pathogen control in managed bee species to maintain wild pollinators, as declines in native pollinators may be caused by interspecies pathogen transmission originating from managed pollinators.%本期封面所示为一只大黄蜂和一只蜜蜂在采向日葵的花蜜。高效授粉对于粮食生产和生态系统可持续发展来说都至关重要, 有证据表明新出现的传染病造成一些重要昆虫授粉者种群数量下降。这项研究结合实验室感染实验和野外研究显示了两个严重的蜜蜂(Apis mellifera)病原体对于一种野生授粉昆虫"大黄蜂"(Bombus ferresfris)的感染能力。来自英国各地的数据显示, "变形翅膀病毒"(DWV)和微孢子虫寄生虫Nosema ceranae在两种类型的授粉者中存在"共局部化"现象, 蜜蜂病对大黄蜂也有传染性。这项工作表明, 野生授粉者种群可能面临风险, 而且与人工管理的蜜蜂种群不同的是, 它们没有因为养蜂人采取干预措施而受到保护。野生授粉者的这种损失会显著降低作物授粉效率。