Bee poisoning incidents in Germany in spring 2008 caused by abrasion of active substance from treated seeds during sowing of maize

contribution to session V Honey bee poisoning incidents and monitoring schemes In spring 2008 a high number of bee poisoning incidents was recorded during sowing of maize in the Upper Rhine valley and in South Bavaria near Passau. More than 11.500 honey bee colonies from about 700 beekeepers in the Upper Rhine valley showed symptoms of insecticide poisoning. The reason for the poisoning was the abrasion of dust from maize seeds treated with the insecticide Poncho Pro (a.s. clothianidin) during the sowing process and blowing out of this dust containing the active substance into the environment with pneumatic sowing machines, resulting in contamination of nectar and pollen. The poisonings occurred in areas in southern Germany in which an eradication program for the quarantine pest Diabrotica virgifera virgifera was active and where clothianidin was used at a high rate (125 g a.s. /ha) on a large scale. An exceptionally high amount of dust of up to 80 g per 100.000 kernels of maize was detected in some of the maize seed batches. The chemical analysis of dust, plant samples, bee samples, fresh pollen and bee bread confirmed the poisoning by clothianidin originating from treated maize seeds. No correlation with any bee pathogens was detected. Keywords: seed treatment, drilling machines, neonicotinoid, clothianidin, dust, maize, drift, bee poisoning, honey bee

Dust in the Wind – Abdrift insektizidhaltiger Stäube – ein Risiko für Honigbienen (Apis mellifera L.)?

Dust in the wind - drift of dust containing insecticides - a risk for honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)?ZusammenfassungIm Zuge des Forschungsprogramms des Bundes und der Länder Bayern und Baden-Württemberg zur Bekämpfung des Westlichen Maiswurzelbohrers (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) fanden 2009 und 2010 großangelegte Versuche zur Staubabdrift während der Aussaat von Clothianidin-haltigem Winterraps- und Maissaatgut statt. Dabei wurden die Kontamination von benachbarten blühenden Bienenweidepflanzen und die Auswirkungen der Drift auf Einzelbienen und Bienenvölker untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass vor allem die Feldrandstrukturen bei Staubabdrift mit für Bienen hochtoxischen Wirkstoffen ein hohes Gefährdungspotential bieten. Weitere Erkenntnisse über die Wirkung der Staubexposition auf Bienenvölker in Abhängigkeit der Applikationsmenge an Staub (0,5 g a.i./ha und 2,0 g a.i./ha Clothianidin; a.i.= active ingredient) konnten aus zwei Halbfreilandversuchen mit gezielter manueller Applikation von praxisorientierten Mengen an Maisbeizstaub-Erd-Gemisch in Phacelia gewonnen werden. Trotz relativ geringem Totenfall konnte nach Applikation von 2 g a.i./ha ein sichtbarer Effekt auf die Mortalität und Populationsentwicklung der Bienenvölker festgestellt werden, während die niedrige Konzentration gegenüber der Kontrollvariante keine Abweichungen aufwies. Stichwörter: Honigbiene (Apis mellifera L.), Bienenvergiftung, Clothianidin, Beizstaub, Abdrift AbstractIn the course of the German Diabrotica research program funded by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer protection and the states of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg large-scale drift trials were conducted during the sowing of winter oilseed rape and maize seeds treated with Clothianidin in 2009 and 2010. In the process the contamination of adjacent flowering bee forage plants and the impact of dust drift on individual bees and colonies were examined. The results show that primarily field edge structures are high risk areas for dust drift with highly toxic ingredients to bees. More data on the impact of exposure of dust on colonies depending on the application amount of dust (0.5 g a.i. / ha and 2.0 g a.i./ ha Clothianidin) were obtained from experimental approaches in tents with manual application of insecticide-loaded dust in Phacelia. Despite an overall low mortality, a visible effect on mortality of the colonies was detected for the higher concentration, whereas the low concentration compared with the untreated control showed no differences.Keywords: honeybee (Apis mellifera L.), bee poisoning, Clothianidin, abrasion dust, drif

Identification of de novo variants in nonsyndromic cleft lip with/without cleft palate patients with low polygenic risk scores

[Background]: Nonsyndromic cleft lip with/without cleft palate (nsCL/P) is a congenital malformation of multifactorial etiology. Research has identified >40 genome-wide significant risk loci, which explain less than 40% of nsCL/P heritability. Studies show that some of the hidden heritability is explained by rare penetrant variants. [Methods]: To identify new candidate genes, we searched for highly penetrant de novo variants (DNVs) in 50 nsCL/P patient/parent-trios with a low polygenic risk for the phenotype (discovery). We prioritized DNV-carrying candidate genes from the discovery for resequencing in independent cohorts of 1010 nsCL/P patients of diverse ethnicities and 1574 population-matched controls (replication). Segregation analyses and rare variant association in the replication cohort, in combination with additional data (genome-wide association data, expression, protein–protein-interactions), were used for final prioritization. [Conclusion]: In the discovery step, 60 DNVs were identified in 60 genes, including a variant in the established nsCL/P risk gene CDH1. Re-sequencing of 32 prioritized genes led to the identification of 373 rare, likely pathogenic variants. Finally, MDN1 and PAXIP1 were prioritized as top candidates. Our findings demonstrate that DNV detection, including polygenic risk score analysis, is a powerful tool for identifying nsCL/P candidate genes, which can also be applied to other multifactorial congenital malformations.The present study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG)-Grants BE 3828/8-1, LU 1944/2-1, MA 2546/5-1, and LU1944/3-1

Shared Genetic Etiology Between Alcohol Dependence and Major Depressive Disorder

The clinical comorbidity of alcohol dependence (AD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) is well established, whereas genetic factors influencing co-occurrence remain unclear. A recent study using polygenic risk scores (PRS) calculated based on the first-wave Psychiatric Genomics Consortium MDD meta-analysis (PGC-MDD1) suggests a modest shared genetic contribution to MDD and AD. Using a (∼10 fold) larger discovery sample, we calculated PRS based on the second wave (PGC-MDD2) of results, in a severe AD case–control target sample. We found significant associations between AD disease status and MDD-PRS derived from both PGC-MDD2 (most informative P-threshold=1.0, P=0.00063, R2=0.533%) and PGCMDD1 (P-threshold=0.2, P=0.00014, R2=0.663%) metaanalyses; the larger discovery sample did not yield additional predictive power. In contrast, calculating PRS in a MDD target sample yielded increased power when using PGC-MDD2 (P-threshold=1.0, P=0.000038, R2=1.34%) versus PGC-MDD1 (P-threshold=1.0, P=0.0013, R2=0.81%). Furthermore, when calculating PGC-MDD2 PRS in a subsample of patients with AD recruited explicitly excluding comorbid MDD, significant associations were still found (n=331; P-threshold=1.0, P=0.042, R2=0.398%). Meanwhile, in the subset of patients in which MDD was not the explicit exclusion criteria, PRS predicted more variance (n=999; P-threshold=1.0, P=0.0003, R2=0.693%). Our findings replicate the reported genetic overlap between AD and MDD and also suggest the need for improved, rigorous phenotyping to identify true shared cross-disorder genetic factors. Larger target samples are needed to reduce noise and take advantage of increasing discovery sample size

Recommendations for the design of laboratory studies on non-target arthropods for risk assessment of genetically engineered plants

This paper provides recommendations on experimental design for early-tier laboratory studies used in risk assessments to evaluate potential adverse impacts of arthropod-resistant genetically engineered (GE) plants on non-target arthropods (NTAs). While we rely heavily on the currently used proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) in this discussion, the concepts apply to other arthropod-active proteins. A risk may exist if the newly acquired trait of the GE plant has adverse effects on NTAs when they are exposed to the arthropod-active protein. Typically, the risk assessment follows a tiered approach that starts with laboratory studies under worst-case exposure conditions; such studies have a high ability to detect adverse effects on non-target species. Clear guidance on how such data are produced in laboratory studies assists the product developers and risk assessors. The studies should be reproducible and test clearly defined risk hypotheses. These properties contribute to the robustness of, and confidence in, environmental risk assessments for GE plants. Data from NTA studies, collected during the analysis phase of an environmental risk assessment, are critical to the outcome of the assessment and ultimately the decision taken by regulatory authorities on the release of a GE plant. Confidence in the results of early-tier laboratory studies is a precondition for the acceptance of data across regulatory jurisdictions and should encourage agencies to share useful information and thus avoid redundant testing