Deformed wing virus affects foraging success and foraging specialization of honeybee workers
Helena Mendes Ferreira, Kristof Benaets, Lina De Smet, Dirk C. de Graaf, Tom Wenseleers · 2025
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Description
Helena Ferreira and co-authors show how a bee virus bends worker behavior in a 2025 study. Deformed wing virus is a top driver of colony losses. Its quiet effects on adult work, beyond wing damage, were little known.
One thousand new workers were marked; half got virus, half got a control that blocks viral copying. Infected bees started foraging younger and died sooner as foragers. Nectar runs often came back empty, and the nectar they did bring was weaker in sugar. Pollen runs, by contrast, grew slightly more likely and more focused, with loads of like weight. The shift may be a make-up move for poor nectar work, but it could starve colonies of prime fuel.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Helena Mendes Ferreira, Kristof Benaets, Lina De Smet, Dirk C. de Graaf, Tom Wenseleers |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 46 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |