Introduction de jachères florales en zones de grandes cultures : comment mieux concilier agriculture, biodiversité et apiculture ?

Les abeilles au sens large représentent plus de 20 000 espèces dans le monde. Or, un déclin des populations d'abeilles a été récemment observé en Europe (Biesmeijer et al., 2006 ; Rasmont et al., 2006). Il pose le problème du risque de disparition de ces insectes auxiliaires et de sa répercussion sur les activités humaines qui leur sont liées comme l’apiculture, la production de fruits, de légumes, de semences. La FAO (Nations-Unies) a lancé, en 1996, un cri d’alarme à l’attention de tous les gouvernements pour sauvegarder cette faune d’auxiliaires. Les causes possibles de ce déclin sont multiples (Kearns et al., 1998 ; Ghazoul, 2005). Les plus citées concernent la destruction et la fragmentation de l’habitat des abeilles (Richards, 2001 ; Steffan-Dewenter et al., 2006) et l'impact des produits phytopharmaceutiques (Kevan, 1975 ; Johansen et al., 1983 ; Taséi, 1996 ; Haskell et McEwen, 1998)

Environmental risk assessment scheme for plant protection products - Chapter 10: Honeybees – Proposed scheme

contribution to session I Regulatory issue

Guidance for the assessment of risks to bees from the use of plant protection products applied as seed coating and soil applications – conclusions of the ICPBR dedicated working group

contribution to session IRegulatory issuesBackground: Soil or seed applied plant protection products (PPPs) aim at bringing the amount of active substance involved to the only parts of the plant that have to be protected. Despite a reduced exposure of non target organisms by this way, an exposure of honey bees through residues in pollen and/or nectar may not be excluded for substances that migrate towards the upper plant parts. Directive 91/414/EEC, related guidance documents and literature data were reviewed and discussed by a working group of the ICPBR (International Commission for Plant-Bee Relationships) with the aim to provide adequate guidance to proceed in a risk assessment in such cases.Results: The review and expert knowledge collected within ecotoxicology, entomology and plant residue area allowed to identify the key parameters that trigger a risk assessment as well as basic hypotheses to consider in deciding for the experimentations required (laboratory, semi-field and field tests). A stepwise, tiered approach is proposed, which has been checked for its ability to discriminate substances that may pose a risk to bees from substances of low concern. Conclusion: The present scheme is proposed to update the current EPPO risk assessment scheme with a special issue on systemic PPPs.Keywords: risk assessment, honey bees, soil or seed treatments, systemic

Standard methods for Nosema research

Methods are described for working with Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae in the field and in the laboratory. For fieldwork, different sampling methods are described to determine colony level infections at a given point in time, but also for following the temporal infection dynamics. Suggestions are made for how to standardise field trials for evaluating treatments and disease impact. The laboratory methods described include different means for determining colony level and individual bee infection levels and methods for species determination, including light microscopy, electron microscopy, and molecular methods (PCR). Suggestions are made for how to standardise cage trials, and different inoculation methods for infecting bees are described, including control methods for spore viability. A cell culture system for in vitro rearing of Nosema spp. is described. Finally, how to conduct different types of experiments are described, including infectious dose, dose effects, course of infection and longevity test

Standard methods for Nosema

Methods are described for working with Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae in the field and in the laboratory. For fieldwork, different sampling methods are described to determine colony level infections at a given point in time, but also for following the temporal infection dynamics. Suggestions are made for how to standardise field trials for evaluating treatments and disease impact. The laboratory methods described include different means for determining colony level and individual bee infection levels and methods for species determination, including light microscopy, electron microscopy, and molecular methods (PCR). Suggestions are made for how to standardise cage trials, and different inoculation methods for infecting bees are described, including control methods for spore viability. A cell culture system for in vitro rearing of Nosema spp. is described. Finally, how to conduct different types of experiments are described, including infectious dose, dose effects, course of infection and longevity test

Standard methods for toxicology research in Apis mellifera

Modern agriculture often involves the use of pesticides to protect crops. These substances are harmful to target organisms (pests and pathogens). Nevertheless, they can also damage non-target animals, such as pollinators and entomophagous arthropods. It is obvious that the undesirable side effects of pesticides on the environment should be reduced to a minimum. Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) are very important organisms from an agricultural perspective and are vulnerable to pesticide-induced impacts. They contribute actively to the pollination of cultivated crops and wild vegetation, making food production possible. Of course, since Apis mellifera occupies the same ecological niche as many other species of pollinators, the loss of honey bees caused by environmental pollutants suggests that other insects may experience a similar outcome. Because pesticides can harm honey bees and other pollinators, it is important to register pesticides that are as selective as possible. In this manuscript, we describe a selection of methods used for studying pesticide toxicity/selectiveness towards Apis mellifera. These methods may be used in risk assessment schemes and in scientific research aimed to explain acute and chronic effects of any target compound on Apis mellifera