| Summary: | In this study, we examined the impact of Sacbrood virus (SBV), the cause of larval honeybee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) death, producing a liquefied a larva sac, on the gut bacterial communities on two larval honeybee species, <i>Apis mellifera</i> and <i>Apis cerana</i>. SBV was added into a worker jelly food mixture and bee larvae were grafted into each of the treatment groups for 24 h before DNA/RNA extraction. Confirmation of SBV infection was achieved using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and visual symptomology. The 16S rDNA was sequenced by Illumina sequencing. The results showed the larvae were infected with SBV. The gut communities of infected <i>A. cerana</i> larvae exhibited a dramatic change compared with <i>A. mellifera</i>. In <i>A. mellifera</i> larvae, the Illumina sequencing revealed the proportion of <i>Gilliamella</i>, <i>Snodgrassella</i> and <i>Fructobacillus</i> was not significantly different, whereas in <i>A. cerana</i>, <i>Gilliamella</i> was significantly decreased (from 35.54% to 2.96%), however, with significant increase in <i>Snodgrassella</i> and <i>Fructobacillus</i>. The possibility of cross-infection should be further investigated.
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