Beliën T, Kellers J, Heylen K, Keulemans W, Billen J, Arckens L, Huybrechts R, Gobin B
Zoology Department, pcfruit, Fruittuinweg 1, BE-3800 Sint-Truiden, Belgium.
Commun Agric Appl Biol Sci. 2009;74(1):245-53.
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the most economically valuable pollinators of fruit crops worldwide. Taking into account bees' contributions to other flowering agricultural crops, about one-third of our total diet comes directly or indirectly from bee-pollinated plants. However, in recent years there increasingly have been worrisome alarm sounds on serious bee mortalities and mysterious disappearance of bees from beehives. Among several environmental factors (e.g. climate and bee pathogens), stress factors arising from agricultural practices can potentially play a role in bee losses. Detailed knowledge on the effects of plant protection products is essential to improve usage with minimal risks. In order to identify potential medium- and long-term effects, we followed up various sublethal contaminated hives during the prolongation of the fruit-growing season. More specifically, a large-scale experiment was conducted in which at four distinct locations (in the Limburg region of Belgium) four different bee colonies (representing three different contaminations -imidacloprid, fenoxycarb, indoxacarb- and a non-contaminated control hive) were thoroughly monitored every 2-7 days. Our observations point towards decays of overall colony vitality for several hives a couple of weeks after treatment, as indicated by a set of carefully assessed parameters including the total amount of active and dead bees, total surface of capped brood and overall colony weight. These outcomes could be linked to subtle differences in foraging activity between distinct hives. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of potential short-term and long-term consequences of disturbed foraging ability triggered by exaggerated exposure to sublethal doses of crop protection chemicals, and its potential impact on colony health.
蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）是全球水果作物最具经济价值的授粉者。考虑到蜜蜂对其他开花农作物的贡献，我们日常饮食中约三分之一直接或间接来自蜜蜂授粉的植物。然而，近年来，蜜蜂大量死亡以及蜂箱中蜜蜂神秘消失的情况日益令人担忧。在几个环境因素（如气候和蜜蜂病原体）中，农业生产活动产生的压力因素可能在蜜蜂损失中起到作用。详细了解植物保护产品的影响对于降低风险使用至关重要。为了确定潜在的中长期影响，我们在水果生长季节延长期间对各种亚致死污染蜂箱进行了跟踪。更具体地说，我们进行了一项大规模实验，在比利时林堡地区的四个不同地点，对四个不同的蜂群（代表三种不同污染——吡虫啉、苯氧威、茚虫威——以及一个未受污染的对照蜂箱）每2至7天进行一次全面监测。我们的观察表明，处理几周后，几个蜂箱的整体蜂群活力下降，这通过一组仔细评估的参数得以体现，包括活蜂和死蜂的总数、封盖子脾的总面积以及蜂群的总重量。这些结果可能与不同蜂箱在觅食活动上的细微差异有关。我们从因过度接触亚致死剂量的作物保护化学品而引发的觅食能力受扰的潜在短期和长期后果，以及其对蜂群健康的潜在影响方面，讨论了这些结果的含义。
