Table 1.

Gaps in our knowledge of viral diseases of pollinating insects and future research

Knowledge gaps	Further research
Prevalence and infection outside the Apis‐genus	Field studies across a broad taxonomic and geographic range verifying both viral presence and infection status
Viral life cycle ☐‐Transmission routes ☐‐Transmission through hibernation	Experimental infection studies both in Apis and novel hosts. Genetic studies to confirm results in nature
Virulence ☐‐Pathogenicity ☐‐Effect of host‐switching on virulence	Field and experimental studies to identify lethal and sublethal pathogenic effects across species
Disease emergence ☐‐Which viruses have successfully emerged as novel diseases? ☐‐What are the epidemiological dynamics in multihost systems? ☐‐Is it the cause of pollinator declines?	Field and experimental studies to determine whether transmission is maintained within species and whether there are source/sink dynamics in natural multihost systems