Thai sacbrood and sacbrood viruses versus European foulbrood of hive bees in India - a review

Thai sacbrood virus (TSBV) disease has killed 95% of Apis cerana colonies in India, while sacbrood virus (SBV) disease has affected only 15% of Apis mellifera colonies. The symptoms are sometimes confused with those of the bacterial disease European foulbrood (EFB) in A. cerana. TSBV and SBV are species specific, but closely related strains. Both are isometric in shape, 30nm in diameter, and are unstable. They have good antigenecity (1:200titer). Sequencing TSBV and SBV genomes yields fragments of 773 and 822 nucleotide lengths, respectively. The respective sequences have been submitted to NCBI, USA GenBank database under accession numbers EU 156753 and 232663. Phylogenetically, TSBV forms a different group from SBV. In spite of these studies, confusion regarding to the identification of TSBV still prevails in the southern part of India.