TY - JOUR
T1 - Reliability of Morphological and PCR Methods for the Official Diagnosis of Aethina tumida (Coleoptera
T2 - Nitidulidae): A European Inter-Laboratory Comparison
AU - Franco, Stéphanie
AU - Cougoule, Nicolas
AU - Tison, Amandine
AU - Cont, Aurélie Del
AU - Gastaldi, Cristina
AU - Duquesne, Véronique
AU - Graham, H.J.
N1 - Funding Information:
In response to diagnostic issues and to ensure the quality of the analytical results obtained within the EU, the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for Bee Health, located in the laboratory of the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) in Sophia-Antipolis (France), organised an inter-laboratory comparison using morphology and molecular identification of A. tumida in October 2020. This was the first trial organised using these methods. All the EU National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) were invited to participate. Non-EU countries that were interested in the comparison were also included. The evaluation was supported by a blind analysis of a panel of 12 insect samples. The objective was to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the results obtained by the laboratories with the analytical methods they routinely use for an official diagnosis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - The Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida Murray, 1867) is an invasive scavenger of honeybees. Originally endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, it is regulated internationally in order to preserve the areas still free from this species. To ensure the reliability of official diagnoses in case of introduction, an inter-laboratory comparison was organised on the identification of A. tumida by morphology and real-time PCR. Twenty-two National Reference Laboratories in Europe participated in the study and analysed 12 samples with adult coleopterans and insect larvae. The performance of the laboratories was evaluated in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity was satisfactory for all the participants and both types of methods, thus fully meeting the diagnostic challenge of confirming all truly positive cases as positive. Two participants encountered specificity problems. For one, the anomaly was minor whereas, for the other, the issues concerned a larger number of results, especially real-time PCR, which probably were related to inexperience with this technique. The comparison demonstrated the reliability of official diagnosis, including the entire analytical process of A. tumida identification: from the first step of the analysis to the expression of opinions. The performed diagnostic tools, in parallel with field surveillance, are essential to managing A. tumida introduction.
AB - The Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida Murray, 1867) is an invasive scavenger of honeybees. Originally endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, it is regulated internationally in order to preserve the areas still free from this species. To ensure the reliability of official diagnoses in case of introduction, an inter-laboratory comparison was organised on the identification of A. tumida by morphology and real-time PCR. Twenty-two National Reference Laboratories in Europe participated in the study and analysed 12 samples with adult coleopterans and insect larvae. The performance of the laboratories was evaluated in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity was satisfactory for all the participants and both types of methods, thus fully meeting the diagnostic challenge of confirming all truly positive cases as positive. Two participants encountered specificity problems. For one, the anomaly was minor whereas, for the other, the issues concerned a larger number of results, especially real-time PCR, which probably were related to inexperience with this technique. The comparison demonstrated the reliability of official diagnosis, including the entire analytical process of A. tumida identification: from the first step of the analysis to the expression of opinions. The performed diagnostic tools, in parallel with field surveillance, are essential to managing A. tumida introduction.
KW - Aethina tumida
KW - Diagnosis
KW - Honey bee
KW - Inter-laboratory comparison
KW - Morphology
KW - Real-time PCR
KW - Small Hive Beetle
U2 - 10.3390/insects13010033
DO - 10.3390/insects13010033
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122188746
SN - 2075-4450
VL - 13
JO - Insects
JF - Insects
IS - 1
M1 - 33
ER -