Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY REPORTS
Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages 47-53Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1758-2229.2010.00186.x
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [CGL 2008 00562]
- European Regional Development Fund
- Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (Consejeria de Agricultura y Consejeria de Educacion y Ciencia)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
P>Identification of transmission routes and of factors affecting the spatial positions of pathogens, hosts and vectors is basic to an adequate disease management. Nosema ceranae is a Microsporidian recently described as a parasite of Apis mellifera honeybees and is currently considered the aetiological agent of an emergent illness named nosemosis type C. In this article we evaluate the role of a bird species, the European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, as a large-scale dispersive agent of N. ceranae. We found a high prevalence of viable spores of N. ceranae in pellets regurgitated by bee-eaters in different locations in the Iberian Peninsula, Central Europe and central Asia. In contrast, spores of Nosema apis, considered till recently the most common microsporidium infecting honeybees, were detected in a single locality and Nosema bombi spores were not noticed. Since non-viable spores were also found in bee-eater nests from different locations, this bird species could also reduce the fraction of infected insects by withdrawing pathogens from the colonies. We conclude that bee-eater mobility and migration may have played an important role in the transmission of the pathogen N. ceranae.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available