[Mitarbeiter.zoologie] Antw: pesticides in honey

[Robin Moritz]

Dear all

A  cute approach to screen honeys testing for neonics. This shows that neonics indeed are used globally. But I guess this we knew before. The authors stress the levels found are those shown to have impact on honeybees. This is correct but I don't think I like the conclusions they draw.  In fact it is a pity that the authors published this with a focus on colony declines. But I guess otherwise they would not have made it into Science magazine. Publications that do not fit their story are accurately omitted in the reference list. As for honeybees, it is not the individual bee that is a relevant measure but rather the colony. In fact their samples may severely  underestimate the overall contamination of nectar.  Honeybees intoxicated with pesticieds will not recruit to the food source. I think it was Menzel showing  that the flight and dance patterns are highly erratic (if they dance at all and if they make it back to the colony). The honeybee (and the honey sampled) is therefore not as good a model system for environmetal monitoring as they claim it to be. The overal levels will be much higher and they should have emphazised this aspect much more strongly. The general reader will now take home honeybees are at risk (which they are not). Readers will overlook the real environmental problem of neonic seed dressings which is the soil contamination. 

They may have done Science a favour but not necessarily science. I am afraid that this is not an objective assessment of the problem. The upside is: it will generate more funding opportunities for bee research. 
 

cheers


Robin 




Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Robin F.A. MoritzMolecular Ecology
Institute of Biology/Zoology
Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Hoher Weg 4   


06099 Halle an der Saale
Germany

>>> Antonella Soro <antonella.soro at zoologie.uni-halle.de> 05.10.17 21.32 Uhr >>>
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6359/38ciao. 
a



 

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