Report of amoebic disease in a colony of Western honey bees ( Apis mellifera ).

The amoeba is the etiologic agent of amoebic (amoeba) disease of Western honey bees (). damages the Malpighian tubules, which is believed to weaken and kill the host bee. Here, the authors describe the detection of this organism in a honey bee colony in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The Malpighian tubules of 14% (7/50) of the adult worker bees were discolored dark brown. Fifteen bees screened using conventional polymerase chain reaction for the gene of were positive for the pathogen. Histologically, the lumens of Malpighian tubules were packed with amoebae, causing dilation of the tubules and attenuation and loss of the tubular epithelium. This phylogenetic analysis places in a new clade, a sister group to the Entamoebidae. This work provides a foundation for further investigation into the distribution, prevalence, and pathology associated with infection.