Viruses are one of many serious threats to honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) health. There are many transmission routes for honey bee viruses, and there is potential for wax comb to act as a reservoir for transmission of viruses. Some work has been done on treating viruses on wax, focusing on irradiation as a potential treatment. However, irradiation is not universally available or economically viable for beekeepers in many regions. With increased colony deaths over winter beekeepers potentially risk further loss from reusing contaminated equipment from dead colonies. Here we explored the use of storage time and temperature on the reduction of waxborne virus levels from winter loss colony wax over 30 days and at −20, 5, and 20 °C. Furthermore, because irradiation has previously worked against waxborne viruses, we performed a dosage experiment with electron-beam irradiation. Winter loss wax was again used, and exposed to 10, 25, 35, and 45 kGy irradiation, including a nonirradiated transport control. Storage time decreased abundance of black queen cell virus and deformed wing virus at times equal or greater than 30 days but temperatures had no significant effect on virus levels. All irradiation doses decreased virus abundance and prevalence, yet only 35 and 45 kGy did so at a greater rate than the effect of transport alone.

中文翻译：

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利用时间、温度和电子束照射处理蜡传蜜蜂（膜翅目：蜜蜂科）病毒

病毒是蜜蜂 (Apis mellifera L.) 健康的众多严重威胁之一。蜜蜂病毒的传播途径有很多，蜡梳有可能充当病毒传播的储存库。已经开展了一些治疗蜡上病毒的工作，重点是将辐射作为一种潜在的治疗方法。然而，对于许多地区的养蜂人来说，辐照并不是普遍可用或经济上可行的。随着冬季蜂群死亡人数的增加，养蜂人可能会因重复使用死亡蜂群受污染的设备而面临进一步损失的风险。在这里，我们探讨了在-20、5和20°C下储存时间和温度对降低冬失菌落蜡中蜡传病毒水平的影响，储存时间超过30天。此外，由于辐射以前对蜡传病毒有效，因此我们进行了电子束辐射的剂量实验。再次使用冬季失蜡，并暴露于 10、25、35 和 45 kGy 的辐射下，包括未辐射的运输对照。储存时间等于或大于 30 天会降低黑蜂王细胞病毒和变形翅病毒的丰度，但温度对病毒水平没有显着影响。所有照射剂量都会降低病毒丰度和流行率，但只有 35 和 45 kGy 的效果比单独运输的效果更大。