Review of Bee Health

Viruses pose a serious threat to the health and well-being of honey bees, Apis mellifera, the most economically valuable pollinators of agricultural and horticultural crops worldwide. Recently, honey bee viruses have gotten a lot of international attention due to the significant disease status that viruses cause in honey bees and the recent observation of the tight correlation between Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in the U.S. and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. Over the past decades, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of virus infections in honey bees. This review chapter summarizes previous findings and recent progress in the understanding of the morphology, genome organization, taxonomy, transmission, and pathogenesis of honey bee viruses. The prospects of future research and challenges associated with the study of honey bee viruses are also discussed in detail.