Viruses and the honey bee

摘要

There are 24 known viruses that attack the honey bee. Not all of these are found in Europe. This, together with next month's article, explains what a virus is, how viruses infect the bee and the common types of viruses in the hive.The word Virus derives from Latin, meaning venom. Viruses are neither plants, animals, or bacteria, but they are the parasites of the living kingdoms. Although they may seem like living organisms because of their prodigious reproductive abilities, viruses are not living organisms in the strict sense of the word. A virus is one of thesmallest units and can vary between 20 and 400 nanometers in size. (A human cell membrane thickness is 7 nanometres thick and about 2500 nanometres (250 micrometres) in diameter.)