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Originally published in Science Express on 6 September 2007
Science 12 October 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5848, pp. 283 - 287
DOI: 10.1126/science.1146498
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Reports

A Metagenomic Survey of Microbes in Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder

Diana L. Cox-Foster,1 Sean Conlan,2 Edward C. Holmes,3,4 Gustavo Palacios,2 Jay D. Evans,5 Nancy A. Moran,6 Phenix-Lan Quan,2 Thomas Briese,2 Mady Hornig,2 David M. Geiser,7 Vince Martinson,8 Dennis vanEngelsdorp,1,9 Abby L. Kalkstein,1 Andrew Drysdale,2 Jeffrey Hui,2 Junhui Zhai,2 Liwang Cui,1 Stephen K. Hutchison,10 Jan Fredrik Simons,10 Michael Egholm,10 Jeffery S. Pettis,5 W. Ian Lipkin2*

In colony collapse disorder (CCD), honey bee colonies inexplicably lose their workers. CCD has resulted in a loss of 50 to 90% of colonies in beekeeping operations across the United States. The observation that irradiated combs from affected colonies can be repopulated with naive bees suggests that infection may contribute to CCD. We used an unbiased metagenomic approach to survey microflora in CCD hives, normal hives, and imported royal jelly. Candidate pathogens were screened for significance of association with CCD by the examination of samples collected from several sites over a period of 3 years. One organism, Israeli acute paralysis virus of bees, was strongly correlated with CCD.

1 Department of Entomology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
2 Center for Infection and Immunity, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY10032, USA.
3 Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, Mueller Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
4 Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
5 Bee Research Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.
6 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
7 Department of Plant Pathology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
8 Center for Insect Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
9 Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry–Apiculture, Harrisburg, PA 17110, USA.
10 454 Life Sciences, Branford, CT 06405, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wil2001{at}columbia.edu

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