41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology
and 9th International Conference on Bacillus thuringiensis

Honey bee colonies face disease threats ranging from viruses to bacteria and mites. Recent severe colony losses in North American honey bees reflect, in part, a rare syndrome during which adult bees disappear from colonies, leaving behind healthy queens and brood with no obvious pathologies. Current hypotheses to explain this syndrome, Colony Collapse Disorder, center on nutritional deficiencies in bees, exposure to harmful exogenous chemicals, and the presence of new or resurgent pathogens. These hypotheses have been tested by genetic analyses of honey bee pathogens and gene-expression analyses of honey bee genes involved in immunity and stress responses. Copy numbers of several bee viruses as well as trypanosomatid parasites are positively correlated with CCD, with a substantial geographic component to the predominant pathogens. Several honey bee genes have emerged as expression biomarkers for CCD, although CCD and control bees do not show systematic differences in the expression of genes related to immune function or stress responses. Genomic resources for honey bees and their major pathogens are also being used to improve honey bee breeding and management for disease resistance. Heritability and efficacy of immune genes targeting the bacterial pathogen Paenibacillus larva will be discussed, along with efforts to use molecular tools to follow bee-bacterium interactions.