INSIGHT: Pesticides targeted in new US bee colony rescue effort

Joe Kamalick

21-May-2015

By Joe Kamalick

An apiaryWASHINGTON (ICIS)–US pesticide and herbicide producers and their products will be getting increased scrutiny and face possible bans as the federal government ramps up a major campaign to rescue the nation’s honey bee pollinators.

The White House this week announced a federal strategy to restore the health of honey bee populations, a campaign that in part will focus on the potential role of pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals in bee colony collapse disorder (CCD).

As laid out in the subchapters and appendices of that strategy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may move immediately to bar any new or broader uses of suspect pesticides and may prohibit the use of those substances in existing applications during pollination periods.

In a 64-page plan of action by the White House pollinator health task force, the Obama administration said it and 16 federal agencies will work on “a comprehensive approach to tackling and reducing the impact of multiple stressors on pollinator health”.

The new federal strategy identifies bee colony threats as “pests and pathogens, reduced habitat, lack of nutritional resources and exposure to pesticides”.

But the focus on pesticides appears to be very strong.

“Pesticides and herbicides, used individually or in combination, can have direct and/or indirect effects on non-target organisms and have been identified as one of the factors contributing to declines in pollinator health,” says the task force’s action plan.

“As many as 121 different pesticides have been identified in honey bee colonies and within pollen, honey and wax,” the action plan says, adding that “There is a limited understanding of chronic exposure effects on insect pollinators in general.”

The pollinator health task force was established by President Barack Obama in June last year.  The heads of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and EPA are co-chairs of the task force that includes 14 other agencies or departments.

The task force also broadened the issue of honey bee colony collapse to concerns over what was termed significant loss of pollinators other than honey bees, including “native bees, birds, bats and butterflies”, especially the iconic monarch butterfly.

“The continued loss of commercial honey bee colonies poses a threat to the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the US,” the White House said, “which could have profound implications for agriculture and food.”

Colony collapse disorder is an epidemic characterized by a sudden disappearance of a colony’s bees with few, if any, dead bees left behind. For reasons unknown, a colony’s bees will fly off and never return.

Although the disorder may have been building for several years, it first came to crisis-level attention after the 2006-2007 North American winter season, when 32% of US cultivated bee colonies disappeared.

Since its onset in 2006-2007, colony collapse disorder has been blamed for an annual loss of about 30% of the US bee population.

That rate of year-by-year loss is not sustainable, according to the USDA, and continuing impact of the disorder puts a major part of US food production at risk.

USDA officials say that about one-third of the US diet – including most fruits, vegetables and vine crops – depend on bee pollination. Major staple crops, such as corn, wheat and rice, are wind pollinated and have not been affected by the disorder.

Although the rate of CCD has declined recently, bee colony losses remain higher than historical averages, according to the USDA.

In addition, if the cause of CCD remains unknown, federal officials worry that the phenomena could accelerate at any time, posing an increasing and perhaps catastrophic risk to agriculture and significant food groups.

In the task force report and strategy issued on Tuesday this week, the bee rescue effort is to focus on three main goals, including reducing the annual bee colony losses to no more than 15% within ten years.

The other two goals include the restoration or development of 7m acres of feeding and breeding lands for pollinators over the next five years, and development of special breeding areas for the Monarch butterfly.

As part of the campaign, the EPA is to work “to balance the unintended consequences of chemical exposure with the need for pest control”.

Pesticides have long been considered a potential culprit in the CCD epidemic, and recent research has pointed at a pesticides group known as neonicotinoids as more directly related to the colony collapse disorder phenomenon.

But pesticides manufacturers have challenged claims that their products are to blame.

Even so, the new federal task force is focused in large part on what it suspects is a key role in CCD by neonicotinoids.

“Concern for honey bee health has centered on published reports of chronic neurotoxicity to bees posed by the widespread use of the neonicotinoid family of pesticides,” according to the task force’s “National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators”.

“Neonicotinoid pesticides are absorbed by plants and distributed systemically to various plant tissues, with some of the pesticide residue being transferred to pollen and nectar, then to honey, over potentially prolonged periods,” the strategy document said.

Because of this systemic mechanism, EPA says it is most concerned that neonicotinoids present the most likely threat, so much so that the agency is going to immediately deny any new uses or applications of neonicotinoids.

The strategy relates that EPA has already “sent letters to registrants of neonicotinoid pesticides with outdoor uses, informing them that EPA likely will not be in a position to approve most applications for new uses of these chemicals until new bee data have been submitted and pollinator risk assessments are complete”.

This de facto ban will affect only new uses sought for neonicotinoids, not current applications – although those too may face prohibitions depending on further research outcomes.

EPA also is considering a ban on use of these pesticides in treating soybean seeds.

A current agency assessment of this role for neonicotinoids is already open for public comment, and the EPA expects to determine “the biological and economic impacts of not allowing the use [of neonicotinoids] to continue on soybeans”.

The agency suggests that such a use ban could be justified “because some scientific publications claim that treating soybean seeds has little value” in combating agriculture pests at planting.

In addition, “EPA is considering additional restrictions on a broader range of pesticide products to further reduce the likelihood of acute exposure and mortality to bees from the foliar (leaf) application of acutely toxic compounds”.

In this area, the agency is looking at risks posed when honey bee colony managers offer their hives to growers to pollinate particular fields, known as contractor pollination.

“Application of a toxic pesticide in this scenario is near certain to result in adverse effects to pollinators,” the strategy argues, adding: “EPA believes that strong regulatory measures should be in place on the contracted service scenario to mitigate these potential problems.”

“EPA will propose to prohibit the foliar application of acutely toxic products during bloom for sites with bees on-site under contract,” the strategy says.

Full details on possible EPA actions against pesticides and herbicides in the CCD crisis are available in four key documents on a special White House blog site.

Paul Hodges studies key influences shaping the chemical industry in Chemicals and the Economy

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