An introduction to Virus Disease -with specific reference to 'Sacbrood'

摘要

Many beekeepers have little awareness of virus disease within honeybee colonies, yet in combination with the mite Varroa destructor, varroa or Acarapis woodi, Acarine, they are invariably fatal. To some degree, this may be that apart from removing stress aspects, such as controlling mites, there is little that can be done. Viruses are infectious agents, which have an acellular organisation that cannot reproduce independently of living cells. As a result, individual virus cells must link with a cellfiom the host organism to reproduce. This creates problems in that, simplistically, kill the virus and you kill the host. The effects have been known for a long time and in some cases remedial or preventative action was known before they were understood.