Presentation Noa Simón – European Beekeeping Coordination

Castel San Pietro Terme (Bologna)
Octuber 2010

The latest efforts to monitor the bee mortality in Europe (EFSA, 2009) revealed bee losses in the countries included in the study¹ between 6-20% during the winter 2006-2007 (where only Norway registered losses under 10%) and 7-34% during the winter 2007-2008 (again Norway being the only country remaining underneath 10% losses, and France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark and Slovenia showing bee losses over 24%). In general, such losses have shown a large correlation with those countries having a more intensive way of plant production, based on monoculture and large utilization of pesticides (OECD, 2008). In the EU in 2006, Italy, France, Spain, Germany were the countries with the largest utilisation of pesticides (above 32.500 Tons reaching the 81.450 Tons in Italy). From these pesticides the proportions of insectices, fungicides and herbicides, among others, varied among countries depending on their ecological and production characteristics.

 In parallel to a large utilisation of pesticides and impoverishment of bee nutritional sources, the toxicity of the marketed products have experienced an increase, the currently available plant protection products in the market (e.g. Imidacloprid, Fipronil, etc.) being 7.000 more toxic than those used in the past (e.g. DDT, Amitraz, etc).

 The confluence of all these facts have resulted in a wide spread of highly toxic pesticides in the environment. Several studies have registered the contamination of air, water, soil, pollen and nectar, plant exudates, etc resulting in the contamination of the pollinators environment and their food and water sources. Furthermore, pesticide persistence entails an environmental bioaccumulation in soils, plants, water, etc (Bonmatin, 2005). Consequently, not only the contact of bees with these pollutants happens in the short-term or as an isolated phenomenon, but also the areas of utilisation of these products and their surroundings involve an intoxication-potential in the long run. 

 In order to avoid this situation several measures need to be put in place. Such measures go from the enforcement of Good Agricultural Practices to the encouragement of agricultural practices aimed to reduce the pesticide consumption. Likewise the achievement of a better Environmental Risk Assessment of pesticides carried out for the authorisation of pesticides is crucial to avoid extremely toxic active substances arrive at the market.

 The European Beekeeping Coordination has developed with the advice of scientists working on bee toxicology and pesticide testers on bees a proposal to improve the evaluation of pesticides. A change in the philosophy of the Assessment has been suggested, including two main aspects: (1) it is the survival of the colony (understood as the “living being”) what should be granted, and not only that of individual bees; (2) the exposure to the pesticides currently used is different than before: long-term exposure to smaller quantities of highly toxic pesticides, therefore the acute toxicity losses relevance in favour to the chronic toxicity and the induction of sub-lethal effects on bees. The latter might not kill bees in the periods of study, but threaten the survival of the colony through processes that are still not fully understood by us. Other measures have been recommended to better protect the bee colony and adapt the duration of the tests to evaluate the effects of long-term exposures to toxics. It is very important that the evaluation of the risks includes the synergic effects between different active substances, fact that becomes very relevant, given that a new active substance will be authorised and used in an environment in which many other products can be found already. Unfortunately, this is not the case currently and little is known about synergic effects of pesticides on bees. Therefore, a large and challenging research field remains in front of the scientific community.

 Bonmatin, J. M., Marchand, P., Charvet, R., Moineau, I., Bengsch, E.R., Colin,, M.E. (2005). Quantification of imidacloprid uptake in maize crops. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry , 53, 5336-5341.

EFSA. (2009, 12 3). Bee Mortality and Bee Surveillance in Europe. CFP/EFSA/AMU/2008/02 , 1-217.

OECD. (2008). OECD Environmental data 2008. Environmental Performance and Information Division OECD- Environment Directorate , 1-30.

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