Social immunity in honey bee brood care: How Israeli acute paralysis virus influences nursing behavior

Taylor, Lincoln Nian

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120123 Copy

Description

Title

Social immunity in honey bee brood care: How Israeli acute paralysis virus influences nursing behavior

Author(s)

Taylor, Lincoln Nian

Issue Date

2023-04-28

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Dolezal, Adam G

Committee Member(s)

• Berenbaum, May R
• Allan, Brian F

Department of Study

Entomology

Discipline

Entomology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Honey bee
• Israeli acute paralysis virus
• brood care
• social immunity

Abstract

To protect themselves from communicable diseases, social insects, in addition to many other animal societies, utilize social immunity: a suite of behavioral, physiological, and organizational means to combat disease transmission. In honey bees, brood care is a highly interactive and cooperative behavior, during which a single larva may be visited by nurse bees thousands of times, representing a prime environment for disease transmission. I investigated a potential social immune response to Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) infection in brood care, hypothesizing that infection will result in a reduction in nursing behaviors. First, I tested for group-level effects by comparing three different social environments where 0%, 50%, or 100% of nurses were experimentally infected with virus. Then, I investigated individual-level effects by comparing the behavioral responses of individual infected and uninfected bees. I found no evidence for a social immune response in nursing behavior at the group level. However, individually, infected bees had more interactions with the larva than their uninfected nestmates. While this increase in interactions may increase virus transmission from adults to larvae, it could also be part of a hygienic response to increase grooming when an infection is detected. While this finding is intriguing, the reasoning behind the observed difference in brood care behavior, as well as the relationship between virus transmission and brood care, will need to be investigated further to better understand the disease dynamics of IAPV within this highly interactive and complex system.

Graduation Semester

2023-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Lincoln Taylor

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