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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JUNE 2017
Communicating to beekeepers I met with Gillian Mansfield, the
more toxic to honey bees than thiacloprid when LD50 acute values are compared. Not all neonicotinoids are equal in their effects on bees. Dr Nauen’s team of researchers examined the 46 P450 cytochrome enzymes in the gut of the honey bee and have identified a single enzyme that rapidly neutralises the thiacloprid molecule by adding an OH molecule to the chemical. Within two hours of exposure by the honey bee to the pesticide, it has been almost completely neutralised. This enzyme is not present in bumble bees or solitary bees, which means they are susceptible to thiacloprid poisoning. The enzyme is not active against the imidacloprid molecule, so it remains highly toxic to all species. The Bayer team has identified the CYP genes that form the cytochrome P450 enzymes in the three bee types. Dr Nauer and his team have gleaned a great deal of information on how a bee can ingest a toxic substance and the reasons they can manage that substance safely or die. So what is this research leading to? Dr Nauen believes that Bayer will be able to eventually model the effects of different pesticides on beneficial insects, develop pesticides that show complete safety to honey bees and further our understanding of how insects grow resistance to insecticides. One day, we hope that someone in New Zealand will commence a similar study on tutin and karakin toxins.
Bayer now has 20 sustainable agriculture projects worldwide that involve pollinators. In Eastern Europe, Bayer is encouraging the planting of wild flowers (annuals) to diversify pollen and nectar sources for honey bees and bumble bees. I discussed our Trees for Bees programme. Juliana admitted planting trees was a very good idea, so I have agreed to put them both in contact with Dr Linda Newstrom-Lloyd. Overall I was very impressed with the scientists working on the Bee Care team at Bayer. It is fair to say that Bayer are addressing a public relations issue with their Bee Care Centers, but they are backing this effort up with good science. They are working extremely hard to understand more about our number one pollinator, the honey bee, and are also researching other pollinators to understand their role in agriculture. This is a major investment in all our pollinator’s future for which Bayer’s efforts should be acknowledged. Disclosure My travel expenses to and from Europe and accommodation in Monheim were at my expense. I was in Europe for other activities and tacked this visit onto the end of my trip. I received some local transport assistance from Bayer, such as hotel pickups and local transport only and they shouted me local meals. Bayer has not imposed any confidentiality requirements, nor has it checked this report in advance of publication.
Communication Manager at Bayer Bee Care Center. She is looking at how Bayer can best communicate with beekeepers, especially with their global programmes ‘Feed a Bee’ and ‘Healthy Hives 2020’, which is being run in the USA and now launched in Chile. We discussed our colony loss survey in New Zealand as well as the COLOSS data in Europe and elsewhere. Sustainable agriculture Dr Juliana Jaramillo, Scientist Bee Care is working on pollinators and sustainable agriculture. In a study of melon growing in Brazil, Bayer observed that 450,000 hives were used to pollinate 12,000 hectares of melons. The only reason that so many hives were being used was that the hives were very weak and had poor populations of worker bees. The challenge for sustainable agriculture in these areas is to have trained beekeepers who know how to manage healthy hives so less are required. Brazil also has native pollinators, solitary and social, and no one knows how useful these could be in pollinating various crops. Research on non- Apis species has just started and Bayer wishes to understand how they interact with Apis mellifera. Do honey bees displace native solitary bees when foraging an area? Bayer is working with the help of guidelines from the IPBES iv reporting network.
i https://beecare.bayer.com/media-center/news/detail/a-new-way-of-protecting-bees-against-varroa-mites ii https://beecare.bayer.com/media-acenter/beenow/detail/hoefchen-estate-field-trial-station-ensuring-crop-protection-products-do-not-affect-bees iii https://beecare.bayer.com/media-center/news/detail/thiacloprid-is-safe-for-bee-colonies iv http://www.ipbes.net/ The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
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