The world’s bees face a major threat from deformed wing virus (de Mirandaa & Generschb, 2010), a pathogen transmitted by the parasitic Varroa mite. It is responsible for causing the death of millions of colonies (van Engelsdorp et al., 2008)  in the US, Europe, and Asia. The major losses started in the early 1990s with at least 30% of colonies dying each year (Potts et al., 2010).

The virus has been seen in 18 species of bees so far, as well as 64 other insect species, where it is typically benign.

Honey bees are very important for the pollination of crops, contributing be