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View Full Version : Neonicotinoids pose 'low' risk to bees, Defra studies show



gavin
27-03-2013, 09:54 PM
According to the Farmers Guardian (http://http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/arable/neonicotinoids-pose-low-risk-to-bees-defra-studies-show/54485.article). Other views may differ of course, as you will see if you read down to the bottom of the piece.

DEFRA has published two pieces of research suggesting the risk of neonicotinoids seed treatments to bee populations in the field is low.


The two pieces of research, including a field trial from the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera), contradict the findings of an EU risk assessment and are likely to reinforce the UK’s opposition to a proposed EU ban.


On Tuesday, Fera published the results of its field trials that examined bee colonies on three sites sown with oilseed rape – one planted with untreated seed, one clothianidin-treated seed and the other where imidacloprid had been used.
The Fera report said ‘no clear consistent relationships were observed’ between the variation in neonicotinoid residues across colonies within and between sites and colony mass and the number of new queens produced.
It concluded the absence of these effects was ‘reassuring’ but did not constitute ‘definitive’ proof as the study was not a formal statistical test of the hypothesis s that neonicotinoids reduce the health of bumble bee colonies.
“Nevertheless, were neonicotinoids in pollen and nectar from treated oilseed rape to be a major source of field mortality and morbidity to bumblebee colonies, we would have expected to find a greater contribution of insecticide residues from nearby treated crops and for there to have been a clear relationship between observed neonicotinoid levels and measures of colony success,” the report said.
On Wednesday, Defra published an assessment of various other pieces of research carried out on the subject.

It concluded that various laboratory studies that showed a negative impact on bee healthy were not fair accounts of what happens in the field due to the ‘overdosing of bees’ in these studies.

And there's more, but I should make you click the link above to see it.

Here is one of the Defra studies (http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/scienceResearch/scienceCapabilities/chemicalsEnvironment/documents/reportPS2371Mar13.pdf).

It looks well worth a good read for those of a scientific bent. The other one is a review of the current position so I may start yet another thread.