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Traynor KS, Tosi S, Rennich K, Steinhauer N, Forsgren E, Rose R, Kunkel G, Madella S, Lopez D, Eversole H, Fahey R, Pettis J, Evans JD. Pesticides in honey bee colonies: Establishing a baseline for real world exposure over seven years in the USA. Environ Pollut 2021; 279:116566. [PMID: 33839524 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.116566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Revised: 01/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Honey bees Apis mellifera forage in a wide radius around their colony, bringing back contaminated food resources that can function as terrestrial bioindicators of environmental pesticide exposure. Evaluating pesticide exposure risk to pollinators is an ongoing problem. Here we apply five metrics for pesticide exposure risk (prevalence, diversity, concentration, significant pesticide prevalence, and hazard quotient (HQ)) to a nation-wide field study of honey bees, Apis mellifera in the United States. We examined samples from 1055 apiaries over seven years for 218 different pesticide residues and metabolites, determining that bees were exposed to 120 different pesticide products with a mean of 2.78 per sample. Pesticides in pollen were highly prevalent and variable across states. While pesticide diversity increased over time, most detections occurred at levels predicted to be of low risk to colonies. Varroacides contributed most to concentration, followed by fungicides, while insecticides contributed most to diversity above a toxicity threshold. High risk samples contained one of 12 different insecticides or varroacides. Exposures predicted to be low-risk were nevertheless associated with colony morbidity, and low-level fungicide exposures were tied to queen loss, Nosema infection, and brood diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten S Traynor
- Global Biosocial Complexity Initiative at ASU, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
| | - Simone Tosi
- Epidemiology Unit, ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety) Animal Health Laboratory, F94701 Maisons-Alfort, France; Department of Agricultural, Forest, and Food Sciences, University of Turin, Via Verdi 8, 10124, Torino, Italy
| | - Karen Rennich
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | - Nathalie Steinhauer
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | - Eva Forsgren
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7044, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Robyn Rose
- USDA Farm Production and Conservation Business Center 1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20250, USA
| | - Grace Kunkel
- Project Apis mellifera, PO Box 26793, Salt Lake City, UT 84126, USA
| | - Shayne Madella
- USDA ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Building 306, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA
| | - Dawn Lopez
- USDA ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Building 306, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA
| | - Heather Eversole
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA; Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7044, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Rachel Fahey
- Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | | | - Jay D Evans
- USDA ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Building 306, BARC-East, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA
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