A novel antibody treatment reduces deformed wing virus loads in the western honey bee (Apis mellifera)

The deformed wing virus (Iflavirusaladeformis) (DWV) is a key driver of colony loss in the western honey bee (Apis mellifera). Here, we demonstrate that orally delivered anti-DWV antibodies can act systemically to reduce DWV loads in naturally infected honey bees. Immunoglobulin Y (IgY) was produced in adult chickens against two DWV proteins, harvested from their eggs, and fed to bees in a sucrose solution. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay demonstrated that orally delivered anti-DWV IgY migrated to the hemolymph. We next assessed the ability of orally delivered anti-DWV IgY to reduce DWV viral loads in naturally infected bees using qPCR. An antibody treatment resulted in a significanteightfold viral load reduction in DWV-infected bees. Our findingsdemonstrate the potential for antibody treatments to help mitigate the losses attributed to DWV in A. mellifera.