Trypanosomatids in honey bee colonies in Spain: a new specific qPCR method for specific quantification of Lotmaria passim, Crithidia mellificae and Crithidia bombi

[Display omitted] •Lotmaria passim and Crithidia mellificae were detected in Castilla – La Mancha.•L. passim parasitic load in the colonies differed between Spring and Autumn.•Lotmaria load increased within the same season from one year to the next.•Trypanosomatid load in the colonies increased although the number of infected colonies decreased. Bee trypanosomatids have not been widely studied due to the original belief that these organisms were not pathogenic to honey bees. However, trypanosomatids have been linked to increased winter mortality in honey bee colonies in recent years and it has been shown that these pathogens can shorten a honey bee worker’s lifespan in laboratory conditions. These studies found that this mortality corresponded to dose-dependent infection. Although Lotmaria passim is the most prevalent species worldwide, the natural load in colonies remains poorly investigated. Here we describe a new highly specific and sensitive qPCR method that allows the differentiation and quantification of the parasitic load of each of the three most common trypanosomatid species described to date in honey bee colonies: L. passim, Crithidia mellificae, and Crithidia bombi. We have used this new method to analyze honey bee colonies in central Spain and confirm that L. passim is the most common species and the one with higher parasitic loads in the colonies, which increased over the years, being higher in spring than in autumn. Crithidia mellificae was present along the study, with the highest prevalence in autumn 2019 and lately it was only found in non-quantifiable loads. Crithidia bombi was not detected in any of the colonies analyzed.