Assessing lethal and sublethal effects of pesticides on honey bees in a multifactorial context

Abstract

The registration of novel pesticides that are subsequently banned because of their unexpected negative effects on non-target species can have a huge environmental impact. Therefore, the pre-emptive evaluation of the potential effects of new compounds is essential. To this aim both lethal and sublethal effects should be assessed in a realistic scenario including the other stressors that can interact with pesticides. However, laboratory studies addressing such interactive effects are rare, while standardized laboratory-based protocols focus on lethal effects and not on sub-lethal effects. We propose to assess both lethal and sublethal effects in a multifactorial context including the other stressors affecting the non-target species. We tested this approach by studying the impact on honey bees of the insecticide sulfoxaflor in combination with a common parasite, a sub-optimal temperature and food deprivation. We studied the survival and the transcriptome of honey bees, to assess both the lethal and the potential sublethal effects of the insecticide, respectively. With this method we show that a field realistic concentration of sulfoxaflor in food does not affect the survival of honey bees; however, the significant impact on some key genes indicates that sublethal effects are possible in a realistically complex scenario. Moreover, our results demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of a novel approach to hazard assessment considering the interactive effects of pesticides. We anticipate our approach to be a starting point for a paradigm shift in toxicology: from an unifactorial, mortality-centered assessment to a multifactorial, comprehensive

Keywords

Hazard assessment; Honey bees; Pesticides; Pollen; Sulfoxaflor; Temperature; Varroa

Published in

Science of the Total Environment
2024, Volume: 948, article number: 174892Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Rodrigues de Miranda, Joachim

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174892

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/131560