Abiotic Factors Affecting Honeybee Health By Henry Klepser

Background Information Honey bees are vital pollinators that, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, increase crop value by more than $15 billion each year. Pollinators have been in decline for the past 20 years and a recent incidence of the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has brought much needed attention to the state of honey bee health. CCD has resulted in a major (50% to 90%) of colonies in beekeeping operations across the U.S. The cause of CCD has not been determined it is well known that honey bees are exposed to many maladies including parasitic mites, viruses, and several fungal and bacterial pathogens. While pesticides and other chemicals are commonly used as a management tool it has been shown that they are also detrimental to honey bee survival and health.

Honeybee Castes

Information The exposure of honey bees to pesticides have resulted in residues in hive products, namely the beeswax. Exposure to many of these neurotoxicants evokes acute and somewhat lethal reductions in honey bee health. Neonicotinoids, for example, cause homing flight failure in worker bees, which can lead to death and can put the colony at risk of collapse.

Figure 1. Correlations of bee and wax fluvalinate residues (ppb) with total miticide and pesticide contents in paired colony samples. Mullin CA, Frazier M, Frazier JL, Ashcraft S, Simonds R, et al. (2010) High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9754. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009754 http://127.0.0.1:8081/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009754

Figure 2. Correlations of pollen and wax chlorothalonil residues (ppb) with total fungicide contents in paired colony samples. Mullin CA, Frazier M, Frazier JL, Ashcraft S, Simonds R, et al. (2010) High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9754. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009754 http://127.0.0.1:8081/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009754

Figure 3. Correlation of total fungicide residues (ppb) with total pesticide contents of pollen samples. Mullin CA, Frazier M, Frazier JL, Ashcraft S, Simonds R, et al. (2010) High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health. PLoS ONE 5(3): e9754. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009754 http://127.0.0.1:8081/plosone/article?id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009754

Closing information No single pesticide has been demonstrated to cause CCD. The synergistic effects, however, of the numerous pesticides that honey bees are exposed to have contributed to the recent declines in health.

Citations “High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health,” Christopher A. Mullin, Maryann Frazier, James L. Frazier, Sara Ashcraft, Roger Simonds, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Jeffery S. Pettis; Published: March 19, 2010 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009754   “A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees,” Mickaël Henry, Maxime Béguin, Fabrice Requier, Orianne Rollin, Jean-François Odoux, Pierrick Aupinel, Jean Aptel, Sylvie Tchamitchian, Axel Decourtye; Published: March 5, 2012 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6079/348.full “Pesticides and honey bee toxicity,” Reed M. Johnson, Marion D. Ellis, Christopher A. Mullin, Maryann Frazier; Accepted: February 17, 2010 http://www.apidologie.org/articles/apido/abs/2010/03/m09141/m09141.html “A Metagenomic Survey of Microbes in Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder,” Diana L. Cox-Foster, Sean Conlan, Edward C. Holmes, Gustavo Palacios, Jay D. Evans, Nancy A. Moran, Phenix-Lan Quan, Thomas Briese, Mady Hornig, David M. Geiser, Vince Martinson, Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Abby L. Kalkstein, Andrew Drysdale, Jeffrey Hui, Junhui Zhai, Liwang Cui, Stephen K. Hutchison, Jan Fredrik Simons, Michael Egholm, Jeffery S. Pettis, W. Ian Lipkin; Published Online: September 6, 2007 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/318/5848/283.full