Testing if oxalic acid affects the replication of viruses in honeybees in absence of varroa mites

Monday, November 14, 2022

11:42 AM – 11:54 AM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 204

Presenting Author(s)

Charu Sharma (she/her/hers)

Graduate research assistant
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Co-Author(s)

RC

Rob Currie

Professor and Head, Department of Entomology
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
ZR

Zoe Rempel

Technician
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Honey bees face heavy colony losses and Varroa destructor is considered a major reason for this loss. This ectoparasitic mite is a vector for the deformed wing viruses (DWV) which is also deadly for honey bees. Oxalic acid is used to control varroa mites, but we don’t know if it affects the virus replication in honey bees. To fill this knowledge gap, we did a cage experiment by treating varroa-free honey bees with OA. Varroa mites could alter the level of viral titers, so we used Australian honey bees which lack varroa infestation due to geographical isolation. For the experiment, we treated honey bees in 10 cages with OA and 10 cages were left untreated as a control. Half of the treated cages and control cages were inoculated with unpurified viruses and the other half were not inoculated but had natural virus infestation. Unpurified viruses in the inoculum were predominantly DWV-B. The level of viruses in bees that died was measured by qPCR. We will be examining results to see any significant difference in the level of viral titers in the OA treated cages and untreated cages.