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Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides

In order to study the in situ effects of the agricultural landscape and exposure to pesticides on honey bee health, sixteen honey bee colonies were placed in four different agricultural landscapes. Those landscapes were three agricultural areas with varying levels of agricultural intensity (AG areas...

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Autores principales: Alburaki, Mohamed, Chen, Deniz, Skinner, John A., Meikle, William G., Tarpy, David R., Adamczyk, John, Stewart, Scott D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6023357/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29899302
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects9020065
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author Alburaki, Mohamed
Chen, Deniz
Skinner, John A.
Meikle, William G.
Tarpy, David R.
Adamczyk, John
Stewart, Scott D.
author_facet Alburaki, Mohamed
Chen, Deniz
Skinner, John A.
Meikle, William G.
Tarpy, David R.
Adamczyk, John
Stewart, Scott D.
author_sort Alburaki, Mohamed
collection PubMed
description In order to study the in situ effects of the agricultural landscape and exposure to pesticides on honey bee health, sixteen honey bee colonies were placed in four different agricultural landscapes. Those landscapes were three agricultural areas with varying levels of agricultural intensity (AG areas) and one non-agricultural area (NAG area). Colonies were monitored for different pathogen prevalence and pesticide residues over a period of one year. RT-qPCR was used to study the prevalence of seven different honey bee viruses as well as Nosema sp. in colonies located in different agricultural systems with various intensities of soybean, corn, sorghum, and cotton production. Populations of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor were also extensively monitored. Comprehensive MS-LC pesticide residue analyses were performed on samples of wax, honey, foragers, winter bees, dead bees, and crop flowers for each apiary and location. A significantly higher level of varroa loads were recorded in colonies of the AG areas, but this at least partly correlated with increased colony size and did not necessarily result from exposure to pesticides. Infections of two viruses (deformed wing virus genotype a (DWVa) and acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV)) and Nosema sp. varied among the four studied locations. The urban location significantly elevated colony pathogen loads, while AG locations significantly benefited and increased the colony weight gain. Cotton and sorghum flowers contained high concentrations of insecticide including neonicotinoids, while soybean and corn had less pesticide residues. Several events of pesticide toxicity were recorded in the AG areas, and high concentrations of neonicotinoid insecticides were detected in dead bees.
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spelling pubmed-60233572018-07-03 Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides Alburaki, Mohamed Chen, Deniz Skinner, John A. Meikle, William G. Tarpy, David R. Adamczyk, John Stewart, Scott D. Insects Article In order to study the in situ effects of the agricultural landscape and exposure to pesticides on honey bee health, sixteen honey bee colonies were placed in four different agricultural landscapes. Those landscapes were three agricultural areas with varying levels of agricultural intensity (AG areas) and one non-agricultural area (NAG area). Colonies were monitored for different pathogen prevalence and pesticide residues over a period of one year. RT-qPCR was used to study the prevalence of seven different honey bee viruses as well as Nosema sp. in colonies located in different agricultural systems with various intensities of soybean, corn, sorghum, and cotton production. Populations of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor were also extensively monitored. Comprehensive MS-LC pesticide residue analyses were performed on samples of wax, honey, foragers, winter bees, dead bees, and crop flowers for each apiary and location. A significantly higher level of varroa loads were recorded in colonies of the AG areas, but this at least partly correlated with increased colony size and did not necessarily result from exposure to pesticides. Infections of two viruses (deformed wing virus genotype a (DWVa) and acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV)) and Nosema sp. varied among the four studied locations. The urban location significantly elevated colony pathogen loads, while AG locations significantly benefited and increased the colony weight gain. Cotton and sorghum flowers contained high concentrations of insecticide including neonicotinoids, while soybean and corn had less pesticide residues. Several events of pesticide toxicity were recorded in the AG areas, and high concentrations of neonicotinoid insecticides were detected in dead bees. MDPI 2018-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6023357/ /pubmed/29899302 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects9020065 Text en © 2018 by the authors. 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Alburaki, Mohamed
Chen, Deniz
Skinner, John A.
Meikle, William G.
Tarpy, David R.
Adamczyk, John
Stewart, Scott D.
Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides
title Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides
title_full Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides
title_fullStr Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides
title_full_unstemmed Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides
title_short Honey Bee Survival and Pathogen Prevalence: From the Perspective of Landscape and Exposure to Pesticides
title_sort honey bee survival and pathogen prevalence: from the perspective of landscape and exposure to pesticides
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6023357/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29899302
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects9020065
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