Issue |
Apidologie
Volume 32, Number 3, May-June 2001
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Page(s) | 199 - 214 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2001122 |
Apidologie 32 (2001) 199-214
Implications of horizontal and vertical pathogen transmission for honey bee epidemiology
Ingemar Friesa and Scott Camazineba Department of Entomology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7044, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
b Department of Entomology, Penn State University, 539 ASI Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA
(Received 15 January 2001; accepted 8 March 2001)
Abstract
The degree to which a disease evolves to be virulent depends, in part, on whether
the pathogen is transmitted horizontally or vertically. Eusocial insect colonies
present a special case since the fitness of the pathogen depends not only on the
ability to infect and spread between individuals within a colony, but also on the
ability to spread to new individuals in other colonies. In honey bees, intercolony
transmission of pathogens occurs horizontally (by drifting or robbing)
and vertically (through swarming). Vertical transmission is likely the most
important route of pathogen infection of new colonies. Theory predicts that
this should generally select for benign host-parasite relationships. Indeed,
most honey bee diseases exhibit low virulence. The only major exception is
American foulbrood (AFB). In light of current ideas in evolutionary epidemiology,
we discuss the implications of horizontal and vertical pathogen transmission for
virulence of AFB and other honey bee diseases.
Key words: honeybee / epidemiology / pathogen transmission / horizontal transmission / vertical transmission
Correspondence and reprints: Ingemar Fries
e-mail: Ingemar.Fries@entom.slu.se
© INRA, EDP Sciences, DIB, AGIB 2001