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Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan

While pollinating, honeybees are subject to exposure to a variety of pesticides; with their characteristics of certain foraging distances, they could serve as bioindicators of pesticide exposure in a neighborhood. We conducted a study to assess availability by collecting and analyzing bee samples fr...

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Autores principales: Hung, Chien-Che, Yiin, Lih-Ming
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10458306/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37624208
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics11080703
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author Hung, Chien-Che
Yiin, Lih-Ming
author_facet Hung, Chien-Che
Yiin, Lih-Ming
author_sort Hung, Chien-Che
collection PubMed
description While pollinating, honeybees are subject to exposure to a variety of pesticides; with their characteristics of certain foraging distances, they could serve as bioindicators of pesticide exposure in a neighborhood. We conducted a study to assess availability by collecting and analyzing bee samples from 15 apiaries located in East Taiwan and dust samples from the adjacent environment, and by finding relations between both samples. Seventeen pesticides were selected for the analysis using gas or liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, and eight (three insecticides, two herbicides, and three fungicides) were more frequently detected from bee or dust samples; the levels of these pesticides were mostly under 1000 ng/g. Significant correlation results (r ≅ 0.8) between residue concentrations in bees and in dust suggest that honeybees could be a good bioindicator for exposure to herbicides and fungicides within certain ranges. The pesticide contents of sick/dead bees were much higher than those of healthy counterparts regarding any pesticide type, with the mean total concentrations of 635 ng/g and 176 ng/g, respectively. We conclude that honeybees could be used as bioindicators of pesticide exposure; sick/dead bees could serve as a warning sign of the severity of pesticide pollution.
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spelling pubmed-104583062023-08-27 Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan Hung, Chien-Che Yiin, Lih-Ming Toxics Article While pollinating, honeybees are subject to exposure to a variety of pesticides; with their characteristics of certain foraging distances, they could serve as bioindicators of pesticide exposure in a neighborhood. We conducted a study to assess availability by collecting and analyzing bee samples from 15 apiaries located in East Taiwan and dust samples from the adjacent environment, and by finding relations between both samples. Seventeen pesticides were selected for the analysis using gas or liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, and eight (three insecticides, two herbicides, and three fungicides) were more frequently detected from bee or dust samples; the levels of these pesticides were mostly under 1000 ng/g. Significant correlation results (r ≅ 0.8) between residue concentrations in bees and in dust suggest that honeybees could be a good bioindicator for exposure to herbicides and fungicides within certain ranges. The pesticide contents of sick/dead bees were much higher than those of healthy counterparts regarding any pesticide type, with the mean total concentrations of 635 ng/g and 176 ng/g, respectively. We conclude that honeybees could be used as bioindicators of pesticide exposure; sick/dead bees could serve as a warning sign of the severity of pesticide pollution. MDPI 2023-08-15 /pmc/articles/PMC10458306/ /pubmed/37624208 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics11080703 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Hung, Chien-Che
Yiin, Lih-Ming
Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan
title Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan
title_full Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan
title_fullStr Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan
title_full_unstemmed Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan
title_short Availability of Using Honeybees as Bioindicators of Pesticide Exposure in the Vicinity of Agricultural Environments in Taiwan
title_sort availability of using honeybees as bioindicators of pesticide exposure in the vicinity of agricultural environments in taiwan
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10458306/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37624208
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics11080703
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