Honeybees

Moria delle api. Gli insetticidi si trovano nuovamente sotto accusa. Un nuovo studio pone in correlazione la morte diffusa delle api all'impiego di pesticidi. Mentre gli Stati Uniti hanno negato la connessione tra declino delle api e impiego di pesticidi tossici, la Commissione Europea ha proposto una messa al bando temporanea di tre neonicotinoidi, in attesa di nuove conferme scientifiche sulla loro effettiva azione negativa nei confronti delle api. Una ricerca condotta di recente presso l'Università di Nottingham ha dimostrato che una determinata categoria di insetticidi è in grado di provocare alterazioni del DNA delle api. Lo studio mostra una chiara correlazione del fenomeno con l'insetticida imidacloprid. I risultati delle ricerche sono stati pubblicati sulla rivista PlosOne.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was asked by the European Commission (EC) to develop a Guidance Document on the risk assessment of plant protection products on bees. The Guidance Document is intended to provide guidance for notifiers and authorities in the context of the review of plant protection products (PPPs) and their active substances under Regulation (EC) 1107/2009. The scientific opinion on the science behind the development of a risk assessment of plant protection products on bees (Apis mellifera, Bombus spp. and solitary bees) (EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Poducts and their Residues (PPR), 2012a) provided the scientific basis for the development of the Guidance Document. The process of the development of the Guidance Document follows the methodology of definition of specific protection goals (SPGs) as outlined in the scientific opinion of EFSA‘s Plant Protection Products and their Residues Panel (EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR), 2010). The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health was consulted for the appropriate levels of protection (e.g. to make choices on the magnitude of effects, duration of effects and exposure percentiles). The Guidance Document suggests the implementation of a tiered risk assessment scheme with a simple and cost-effective first tier to more complex higher tier studies under field conditions. Each of the tiers will have to ensure that the appropriate level of protection is achieved. More detailed guidance on specific aspects of laboratory studies and higher tier risk assessments is given in the appendices. A need for test protocols for bumble bees and solitary bees was identified. Potential protocols are available in the published literature and first proposals are made in the appendices. It is important that fully validated test protocols are developed in future.

De vaste commissie voor Economische Zaken en de vaste commissie voor Infrastructuur en Milieu hebben op 1 juli 2013 overleg gevoerd met staatssecretaris Dijksma van Economische Zaken en staatssecretaris Mansveld van Infrastructuur en Milieu over:
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken d.d. 14 mei 2013 houdende de Aanbieding van de Nota "Gezonde Groei, Duurzame Oogst"(27858, nr. 146);
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken d.d. 5 december 2012 inzake Verbetering naleefbaarheid en handhaafbaarheid gewasbeschermingsmiddelengebruik (27858, nr. 137);
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische zaken houdende de Aanbieding Integriteitscode van het College voor de toelating van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden (Ctgb) (27858, nr. 139);
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken d.d. 12 februari 2013 inzake de Voortgang van de verbetertrajecten bij het Ctgb (27858, nr. 142)
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Infrastructuur en Milieu d.d. 18 juni 2013 inzake het Onderzoeksrapport van Pesticide Action Network (Pan Europe) (27858, nr. 160).
Van dit overleg brengt de commissie bijgaand geredigeerd woordelijk verslag uit.

Der Landwirtschaftsausschuss hat sich am Mittwoch auf ein neues Pflanzenschutzmittelgesetz zum Schutze der Bienen geeinigt. Der Initiativantrag wurde von den Abgeordneten der beiden Koalitionsparteien SPÖ und ÖVP gemeinsam mit den Grünen und dem BZÖ beschlossen und betrifft sowohl das Verbot der Neonicotinoide wie auch von Glyphosatanwendungen. Ebenso soll es künftig untersagt sein, Herbizide im Lebensmittelhandel oder ohne Beratung über Selbstbedienung anzubieten. Am kommenden Freitag soll das Gesetz im Nationalrat abgesegnet werden. Das künftige Gesetz zum Beizverbot von heimischem Getreide mit Neonicotinoiden ist zwar nicht das anvisierte Totalverbot, doch ein äußerst weitreichendes. "Wir haben 95 Prozent geschafft, an den offenen Punkten werden wir weiter arbeiten", sagte Wolfgang Pirklhuber, Landwirtschaftssprecher der Grünen. Das Verbot der Sikkation von Getreide, also dem künstlichen Trocknen, nannte er als besonders wichtigen Schritt.

New research by academics at The University of Nottingham has shown that exposure to imidacloprid causes changes to the genes of the honeybee. The study, led by Dr Reinhard Stöger, Associate Professor in Epigenetics in the University's School of Biosciences, was conducted under field realistic conditions and showed that a very low exposure of just two parts per billion of imidacloprid has an impact on the activity of some of the honeybee genes. The researchers identified that cells of honeybee larvae had to work harder and increase the activity of genes involved in breaking down toxins, most likely to cope with the insecticide. Genes involved in regulating energy to run cells were also affected. Such changes are known to reduce the lifespan of the most widely studied insect, the common fruit fly, and lower a larva's probability of surviving to adulthood. Dr Stöger said: "Although larvae can still grow and develop in the presence of imidacloprid, the stability of the developmental process appears to be compromised. Should the bees be exposed to additional stresses such as pests, disease and bad weather then it is likely to increase the rate of development failure."

MORE than half of Ireland's honeybee population has been wiped out since winter, say beekeepers, who have described the losses as a "complete and utter meltdown". Varroa mites and their related diseases, poor breeding and two years of bad weather have played a big role in decimating bee numbers. But beekeepers are also blaming a controversial range of new agricultural pesticides – neonicotinoids – for contributing to the losses of between 50pc and 80pc of Irish hives this year. In the UK, reports of 60pc losses spurred the government there to last week launch what it described as an "urgent review" of the bee crisis. According to the Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Associations (FIBA), the wipeout among its 2,000-plus members is the worst ever. It estimates that Irish hive numbers have fallen below 10,000 from more than 20,000 before winter.

De Staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken, Mw. Sharon A.M. Dijksma heeft belanghebbende partijen uitgenodigd deel te nemen aan de bijeenkomst 'Bij elkaar: naar een Actieprogramma Bijengezondheid' op maandag 8 juli 2013 in het 'New Babylon Meeting Center' te Den Haag. Tijdens de bijeenkomst, die onder leiding stond van Felix Rottenberg, werden concrete voorstellen gedaan voor acties ter bevordering van de bijengezondheid. Bijgevoegd de presentatie van de toxicoloog Henk Tennekes, waarin de volgende 7 stellingen ter bevordering van de bijengezondheid werden toegelicht: 1. Verbod op alle toepassingen van alle neonicotinoiden; 2. Hervorming van de risico-analyse van bestrijdingsmiddelen; 3. Onafhankelijke supervisie van de ontwikkeling en toepassing van bestrijdingsmiddelen; 4. Geen belangenverstrengelingen bij personen die betrokken zijn bij het bestrijdingsmiddelenbeleid; 5. Geen prophylactisch (voorbehoedend) gebruik van bestrijdingsmiddelen; 6. Sterke bevordering van de ecologische landbouw; 7. Het primaat van de politiek bij het bestrijdingsmiddelenbeleid mag niet door lobbyisme worden aangetast.

The survival of a species depends on its capacity to adjust to changing environmental conditions, and new stressors. Such new, anthropogenic stressors include the neonicotinoid class of crop-protecting agents, which have been implicated in the population declines of pollinating insects, including honeybees (Apis mellifera). The low-dose effects of these compounds on larval development and physiological responses have remained largely unknown. Over a period of 15 days, we provided syrup tainted with low levels (2 µg/L−1) of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid to beehives located in the field. We measured transcript levels by RNA sequencing and established lipid profiles using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry from worker-bee larvae of imidacloprid-exposed (IE) and unexposed, control (C) hives.

The negative effects of a commonly applied systemic insecticide, neonicotinoid, on the honey bee Apis mellifera L. are of great concern worldwide, as the use of the chemical is expanding. Recently, special attention has been paid to the sublethal effects of insecticides. An increasing number of studies has identified sublethal effects on the honey bee in the laboratory or in experimental cages, but so far, few studies have examined sublethal effects in the field. To reveal sublethal effects under field conditions, I examined whether the proportion of successful homing flights by foraging honey bees during 30 min after release decreased after bees were topically exposed to insecticides. Honey bees were treated with two types of neonicotinoid insecticide (clothianidin, dinotefuran) and two types of previously common insecticide (etofenprox [pyrethroid] and fenitrothion [organophosphate]) at five different doses (one-half, one-fourth, one-tenth, one-twentieth, and one-fortieth of their median lethal dose - LD50). Then the bees were released 500 m from their hives in the field.