Dr John Roberts1, Dr Francisco Encinas-Viso1, Dr Liz Milla1, Associate Professor Andrew Geering2
1Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, Australia, 2University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
Honey bees provide essential pollination services across the agricultural landscape and can also deliver unique surveillance of the environment for a range of biosecurity threats. Australia’s national sentinel hive program monitors high risk ports of entry for honey bee biosecurity threats, e.g. Varroa mites and bee viruses. However, foraging honey bees collecting nectar and pollen are also interacting widely with the local environment. Molecular testing (high-throughput sequencing or targeted PCR) of honey bees, bee-collected pollen and honey are an excellent source for detection of a range of bee and plant pathogens and weed species.
Here we present three case-studies where we have demonstrated the potential of this approach to detect plant viruses of biosecurity interest. Our first example describes the early detection of cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) from high-throughput sequencing during a national bee pathogen survey. Our second example used sentinel hives from the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program to detect several potential exotic plant viruses and included pollen metabarcoding to identifying the plants visited by foraging bees. Our third example explored the application of this method for surveillance of avocado sunblotch viroid during orchard pollination.
From these examples we will discuss how honey bee surveillance can become a valuable tool to enhance cross-sectorial integration of the biosecurity system.
Biography:
Dr Roberts leads CSIRO’s bee pathology research to support the health and biosecurity of Australia’s honey bee industry and pollination services. Through this work he has been investigating the potential for a more integrated approach between bee and plant biosecurity.