First detection of Apis mellifera filamentous virus in Apis cerana cerana in China

• First detection AmFV infection in Apis cerana cerana in China.
• The AmFV infection occurred with high prevalence in different provinces.
• Results indicated that AmFV should be considered as one of the potential impacts on A. cerana cerana health.

Although many honey bee RNA viruses have been correlated with colony declines, little is known regarding the potential role of DNA viruses. Here, we examined seemingly healthy and crawling bee samples from China using PCR to identify whether Apis mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV) was present in A. cerana cerana. The highest AmFV infection percentage among Chinese provinces occurred in crawling bees from Gansu province (85.48%), and the lowest was in bees from Beijing (31.58%). A phylogenetic analysis showed that the Chinese isolate of AmFV exhibited a high genetic similarity with isolates from Belgium, Switzerland and USA. This is the first report of AmFV infections in Chinese A. cerana cerana populations.

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