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Analysis of Contaminant Residues in Honey Bee Hive Matrices
Citation:
Glinski, D., S. Purucker, J. Minucci, AND W. Henderson. Analysis of Contaminant Residues in Honey Bee Hive Matrices. 2023 SETAC North America Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY, November 12 - 16, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Pollinators provide ecological services essential to maintaining our food supply and propagating natural habitats. However, populations are in serious decline due to causative environmental stressors including pesticides, pathogens, poor nutrition, and habitat loss. To better understand the transference of pesticide residues on colony health, a field survey in central Ohio, USA was conducted to monitor the potential contamination of agricultural use pesticide residues in honey bee colonies. Pesticide residues positively correlate with agricultural gradients across site, pesticide concentrations in pollen (site specific) as well as sampling period. Ultimately, these data will inform how the foraging nature of honey bees permit colony-wide exposure to pesticides.
Description:
Pollinators provide ecological services essential to maintaining our food supply and propagating natural habitats. However, populations are in serious decline due to causative environmental stressors including pesticides, pathogens, poor nutrition, and habitat loss. To better understand the impacts of pesticide exposures on colony health, a field survey in central Ohio, USA was conducted to monitor the potential contamination of honey bee colonies by agricultural use pesticide residues. Apiaries (n=10) were situated across an agricultural gradient, and samples were collected over a 4-week period encompassing corn planting. Dead bees from entrance traps, pollen, and in-hive (IH) matrices including bee bread, honey, larvae, and nurse bees were analyzed for organophosphates, organochlorines, organonitrogens, neonicotinoids, and pyrethroids using GCxGC-ToF/MS, GC-QTOF/MS, and LC-MS/MS. Out of ~200 pesticides and their degradates targeted, over 60 residues were detected and quantified across 306 samples. Neonicotinoids and fungicides were the dominant pesticide classes identified throughout all the matrix types. Neonicotinoids were detected at both higher concentrations and frequencies compared to fungicides, specifically in field pollen samples. Dead bee traps also contained high concentrations of these two contaminant classes, although detection frequencies for neonicotinoids were typically lower. Overall, the herbicides and non-neonicotinoid insecticides were found with low frequency and at low concentrations. For most pesticide classes, trends for the mean concentration were dead bee traps > IH nurse bees > field pollen > IH larvae > IH honey. Pesticides were detected in 100% of the pollen, dead bee trap, nurse bees, larvae, bee bread and honey samples analyzed with concentrations ranging from 0.01 ppb (diphenylamine) to 2790 ppb (clothianidin). Among all targeted analytes, N-(2,4-dimethylphenyl)formamide (DMPF; amitraz metabolite, a miticide commonly used by beekeepers) was detected at the highest frequencies in dead bee traps, nurse bees, larvae, bee bread, and honey. All samples analyzed were contaminated with at least two pesticide residues, while 19 samples presented over ten detects and a maximum detect of 20 in a dead bee trap sample. Pesticide residues were positively correlated with agricultural gradients across sites and sampling periods. Ultimately, these data will inform how the foraging nature of honey bees permits colony-wide exposure to pesticides.
URLs/Downloads:
https://www.setac.org/discover-events/global-meetings/setac-north-america-44th-annual-meeting.html