Survey of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) in apiaries of Kurdistan, Iran

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is the most important honey bee viral pathogen causing the death of millions of colonies in the world. DWV infection is among the common viral infections in honey bees and the virus has established a persistent infection in most apiaries in the world. Infection by DWV was found in different bee castes including the queen, drones, and workers as well as in different bee developmental stages including eggs, larvae, pupae and adults. A simple random sampling was used to select the samples in 2016. Samples of adult bees were collected from 400 colonies in 50 apiaries. The samples were free of any diseases, but most of them were infected with Varroa. Bee samples were examined by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction methods (RT-PCR). The results showed that out of 50 apiaries, 48 (96%) were infected with the virus. The results showed that in order to control and prevent the spread of this virus in apiaries of the province, the necessity of developing a control strategy should be the priority of the trustee organization and to prevent the distribution of viral disease among apiaries, virological investigations should be considered.