Honey bee workers prefer food treated with deformed wing virus

Honey bees are often afflicted with the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor and their associated viruses, most prominently deformed wing virus (DWV). High DWV exacerbated by V. destructor can lead to colony population collapse when left unchecked, but several other transmission methods can move the virus within and between colonies. Understanding whether honey bees can detect DWV in their environment will provide a more complete picture of how this virus spreads and how it influences their behavior. In this experiment, caged honey bees were given a choice of two sucrose solutions, one treated with various levels of DWV (10⁴, 10⁷, or 10¹⁰ viral copies per ml) and one without DWV. Honey bees showed preference for the DWV treated food when DWV levels were medium and high, but when DWV was low or had been heat killed, the bees showed no significant preference between the treated and control. In control cages given the choice of two identical sugar syrups, workers showed no preference. Additional experiments to determine detection threshold for DWV and the virus’ impacts on behavior will be discussed, along with their response to other viruses (chronic bee paralysis virus, black queen cell virus). While the mechanism explaining this attraction needs elucidation, we conclude based on these data that workers can detect DWV in a food source and that they are attracted to it in a dose dependent manner. This has implications for viral transmission, particularly at shared food resources where other susceptible species may be exposed to DWV.