Longitudinal analysis of honey bee viruses in the USA

Honey bees, Apis mellifera, could be infected by a number of viruses. There is a possibility that uncharacterized viruses and virus strains could severely affect honey bee health and colony survival. Therefore, identification of all components of honey bee virome is important to predict effect of viruses on bees and develop virus mitigation measures. Here we used high-throughput RNA sequencing to investigate RNA virus complexes in a sample of live worker bees collected in June 2018 in an Oregon apiary which showed historically high level of colony losses.