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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Entomology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Taylor, Lincoln Nian

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dolezal, Adam G
• Berenbaum, May R
• Allan, Brian F

• Honey Bee
• Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus
• Brood Care
• Social Immunity

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Lincoln Taylor

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120123