The seasonal detection of AcSBV (Apis cerana sacbrood virus) prevalence in Taiwan

The epizootic disease caused by Apis cerana sacbrood virus (AcSBV) occurred in Eastern hive bee, A. cerana, since 2015 in Taiwan. A large-scale survey of this disease from September and December 2016 in Taiwan was performed including symptom check and molecular identification in honey bees of A. cerana hives and several A. mellifera hives, which were co-cultured with A. cerana. Based on the nucleotide sequences of partial VP1, the phylogenetic analysis with those of the known AcSBV isolates revealed that most of AcSBV isolates from Taiwan were closely relative to SBV-FZ and -JL isolates from China, whereas only one sample (N15-5-1) was in a distinct cluster, which was closely relative to SBV-LN from China too. The AcSBV prevalence was occurring in A. cerana hives in most areas of Taiwan except for those in Hualien and Pingtung Counties in Taiwan. Notably, the AcSBV prevalence rate showed the temporal increase from 47.1% to 69.6% within 4?months. In addition, 37.5% of AcSBV prevalence rate was found in A. mellifera hives. It showed that A. mellifera was also susceptible to AcSBV infection. The present results would provide the information on the epidemiology and for prospective research.