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by Common Dreams
January 30, 2012
from
CommonDreams Website
A new study published in
Naturwissenschaften - The Science of Nature, by a leading bee expert
provides damning evidence that a widely used pesticide, even at low
levels, is responsible for the recent catastrophic decline in honey
bees.
Dr. Jeff Pettis of the USDA's
Bee
Research Laboratory in Beltsville, MD led the study. Colony collapse
disorder, as this phenomenon is known, has been getting worse since
2006.
The news has brought renewed calls for these pesticides, which only
became widely used in the 1990s, to be banned as honey bees are key
to human’s survival - pollinating 70 per cent of the crops which
produce most of the world’s food.
The pesticide that
the study looked at was imidacloprid, one
of the most widely used pesticides worldwide.
It is neonicotinoid insecticide produced
by
Bayer CropScience.
Findings give
credence to fears that neonicotinoids
are behind a
worldwide decline in honey bees.
(photo: Samantha G)
The Independent
reports:
Compelling new evidence from the US
government's top bee expert [Dr Jeffrey Pettis] that modern
pesticides may be a major cause of collapsing bee populations
led to calls yesterday for the chemicals to be banned. [...]
Researchers found that bees deliberately exposed to minute
amounts of the pesticide were, on average, three times as likely
to become infected when exposed to a parasite called nosema as
those that had not.
The findings, which have taken more
than three years to be published, add weight to concern that a
new group of insecticides called neonicotinoids are behind a
worldwide decline in honey bees, along with habitat and food
loss, by making them more susceptible to disease. [...]
"The science is now clear, bees
poisoned by neonicotinoid pesticides are much more likely to
die from disease, gather less food and produce fewer new
bees."
Buglife, the invertebrate
conservation charity, is calling for a ban on the controversial
pesticides.
Its director, Matt Shardlow, said
yesterday:
"The science is now clear, bees
poisoned by neonicotinoid pesticides are much more likely to
die from disease, gather less food and produce fewer new
bees."
He added:
"Buglife's 2009 review of the
science of environmental impacts from neonicotinoid
pesticides showed that there was serious cause for concern.
We called for a ban then, and as subsequent research has
only added to concerns, including the revelation that
neonicotinoids make bees prone to a diseased death, we are
repeating our call for these toxins to be banned."
The Government needs to take urgent
action, said Tim Lovett, of the British Beekeepers Association.
He backs the findings of the new
research:
"Their conclusions are right...
here is some data that would appear to suggest links between
widely used pesticides and pathogens."
In October CNN
reported:
The EPA has based its approval of
neonicotinoids on the fact that the amounts found in pollen and
nectar were low enough to not be lethal to the bees - the only
metric they have to measure whether to approve a pesticide or
not.
But studies have shown that at low
doses, the neonicotinoids have sublethal effects that impair
bees' learning and memory. The USDA's chief researcher, Jeff
Pettis, told me in 2008 that pesticides were definitely "on the
list" as a primary stressor that could make bees more vulnerable
to other factors, like pests and bacteria.
The new study puts the "low enough to
not be lethal to the bees" under scrutiny.
This is potentially game-changing research for understanding Colony
Collapse Disorder.Last year Tom Philpott
wrote on Grist about
a report in the Independent showing:
...Pettis at the USDA’s very own Bee
Research Laboratory completed research two years ago suggesting
that even extremely low levels of exposure to neonicotinoids
makes bees more vulnerable to harm from common pathogens.
Philpott noted:
Bayer's miracle -
"A simple method of insect
control consists of drenching the soil around a tree with a
product containing Imidacloprid."
This is potentially game-changing
research for understanding Colony Collapse Disorder.
Scientists have
been focusing on the
interaction between the Nosema fungus and a virus called
Iridoviridae as the culprit. Pettis’ research seems to suggest
that neonicotinoids play a role, too - and at levels so low that
researchers may be overlooking them.
Bayer's miracle
A simple method
of insect control consists of
drenching the
soil around a tree with a product containing Imidacloprid.
So, let’s get this straight.
The chief scientist at the top U.S.
government bee-science institute completed research two years
ago implicating a widely used, EPA-approved pesticide in what
can plausibly be called an ecological catastrophe - the possible
extinction of honeybees, which pollinate a huge portion of U.S.
crops.
Why are we just now hearing about
this - and why are we only hearing about it through an obscure
documentary filtered through a British newspaper?
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