http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1785723/posts
Mysterious illness stings beekeepers
Note from thread:
“Imidacloprid was a partial nicotinic agonist, since it elicited only 36% of ACh-induced currents and competitively blocked 64% of the peak ACh-induced currents. GABA-induced currents were partially blocked when imidacloprid was coapplied and this block was independent upon activation of nAChRs. Our results identify the honeybee nAChR as a target of imidacloprid and an imidacloprid-induced inhibition of the insect GABA receptor.”
nAChR = nicotinic acetylcholine receptors
Nicotine enhances cognitive functions, such as learning, memory, and retention through activation of brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs).
The most common nicotinic receptors found in the brain are the low affinity a 7-nAChR and the high affinity a 4b2-nAChR. a 7.
***Imidacloprid, which is being sprayed as an insecticide, it is an agnostic. An agnostic is used to affect the addictive properties and some of the side-effects of nicotine.***
Hazards of imidacloprid seed coating - affects orientation flights, foraging bees
http://www.univ-tours.fr/irbi/UIEIS/Theses-DEA/Lefebvre-these.pdf
Also:
Effects of sub-lethal imidacloprid doses on the
homing rate and foraging activity of honey bees
Treated honey bees also showed anomalous
flying behaviour: they often fell in the grass and their
flight direction was not towards the hive. Treated bees
seemed to be disoriented, and that could be the cause of
their disappearance.
See what happens when everybody quits smoking?
Some if the bees start smoking tobacco, problem solved?
Now let me get this straight...
I know nicotine sulphate (Black Leaf 40) was one of the early insecticides. This imidacloprid is a more refined version specifically used to coat seed grain to keep it from being et?
I know there were some incidents in the sixties when illiterate peasants ignored warnings about feeding mercury-compound containing seed grain to their hogs and chickens which resulted in their children being born deformed and crippled.
Has imidacloprid been used as a drug to get people off smoking. I would guess not more likely it would send addicts into instant withdrawl like the heroin “agonist” naltrexone.
How’m I doing so far? Mr. Wizard?
***Imidacloprid, which is being sprayed as an insecticide, it is an agnostic. An agnostic is used to affect the addictive properties and some of the side-effects of nicotine.***
>>>>Effects of sub-lethal imidacloprid doses on the
homing rate and foraging activity of honey bees...<<<
Of the neonicotinoids, imidacloprid is the most toxic to birds and fish. Both imidacloprid and thiamethoxam are highly toxic to honey bees.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?page=5922#5922
UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, APIS - UK: PESTICIDES SUSPECTED
****************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
[1]
Date: 1 Oct 2008
Source: Organic in Form [edited]
http://www.organicinform.org/newsitem.aspx?id=3D588
Call to DEFRA to save bees
The Soil Association has today written to Hilary Benn, DEFRA
Secretary of State, urging him to ban the products in the UK with
immediate effect. There is worldwide concern at widespread,
unexplained and devastating deaths of honey bees over the last 2
years. Bee keepers have reported potentially catastrophic loss of
bees from their hives ranging anywhere from 30-90 percent. Britain’s
beekeepers have reported that close to one in 3 hives have failed to
make it through last winter. This “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD) is
not just a problem for beekeepers and farmers, but for consumers as
well, since bee pollination is essential for crop production.
The products implicated in bee deaths, clothianidin, imidacloprid,
fipronil and thiamethoxam, are approved to kill insects on a wide
range of crops in the UK including very widely grown oilseed rape,
barley, and sugar beet. They are also cleared for use in ornamental
plant and hop production.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director, says, “It is
typical of the lax approach to pesticide regulation in the UK that we
look like being one of the last of the major farming countries in the
EU to wake up to the threat to our honey bees and ban these nasty
sprays. We want the Government to act today to remove this threat to
Britain’s honey bees.”
Since their introduction by Bayer CropScience in the USA in 2003,
these neonicotinoid products have been linked to the devastating loss
of millions of honey bees in a number of countries. Germany banned
the pesticides after beekeepers in the Baden-Wurttenberg region
reported that two thirds of their bees died in May [2008] following
the application of clothianidin (Poncho Pro). In 1995 beekeepers in
North Dakota took Bayer to court when a third of their bees were
killed by imacloprid. In France, a third of the honey bee population
was killed after widespread use of imidacloprid.
Organic farming relies on a number of techniques to avoid the use of
sprays that kill insects, including not growing the same or similar
crops every year, and encouraging natural predators of insect pests
(like wild birds, ladybirds and lacewings).
—
Communicated by
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall
******
[2]
Date: Tue 30 Sep 2008
Source: Getwokingham - The Wokingham Times [edited]
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/lifestyle/food_and_drink/s/2036346_bees_disaster_threatens_the_honey_harvest
Bees disaster threatens the honey harvest
In the UK, Stuart Bailey, chairman of Rowse Honey, said recently: “By
Christmas [2008] there will be no English honey in the supermarkets. I’m
absolutely sure, because we’re just not getting the honey in from the
beekeepers. So we will have to import more in from abroad. That’s
tragic. Imagine if that were a permanent scenario: if there are no
British honey-bees, there’ll be no British honey on the shelves.”
Concerned what the dying bees mean for our planet, online discussion
boards warn: “The bees are showing us something here, it is a clear warning.”
Another says: “For many fruit crops, bee loss is a big, big deal.
Gardeners and those with backyard landscapes, please grow bee habitat,
and do it without pesticides, both for honeybees and for native bees.”
Should we be worried? No, says Jon Davey, chairman of Reading and
District Beekeepers’ Association, but the situation is serious. In
his view, the decline of the nation’s — not to mention the world’s —
bee population is something Mother Nature can rectify, with a little
help from her faithful servant, the apiarist. “Bees go back to the
age of the dinosaur. We don’t know why some things happen,” he says.
For example, there are a lot of bumble-bees around this year. We don’t
know why. “Why honeybees are disappearing, who knows? It’s not good
but I should think the bees will survive providing there are
beekeepers to help them.”
Problem is, wild bees producing hives of amber nectar in the woods
are long gone in the UK, rather dating AA Milne’s honey-scoffing bear
Winnie the Pooh [published in the 1930s], says Davey.
Which means we are reliant on beekeepers because not only do bees
supply us with nutritious honey, they form an integral link in the
ecosystem.
Crops such as wheat are pollinated by the wind but apples, pears,
raspberries, cherries, strawberries, blackcurrants, broad and runner
beans and oilseed rape need bees for survival.
The largest threat to bees are varroa mites, a parasite introduced to
Europe and the USA when docile bees were imported from Thailand 15 years ago.
Beekeepers, along with providing secure housing, help bees deal with
the mite “with varying success,” says Davey, and make sure they are
healthy. But add to this 2 dismal summers, meaning bees have not
produced enough honey to keep them going over the winter, and the
situation becomes more serious.
Berkshire beekeepers — most of who are amateur or semi-professional
— do their bit by attending seminars such as the disease recognition
and varroa management day held by regional bee inspector Ian Homer.
Thankfully, most members are dedicated to what is seen in this
country as a left-field hobby.
Davey is committed more than most, for it’s his number that gets handed
out by Reading Borough Council when people call in to report errant
beehives in roofs and such like.
But to solve the problem of our depleted bee population, more
research is needed, says Davey. There is no doubting bee-keepers’
passion for providence (Davey started to keep bees as a solution to
runner beans which refused to germinate), but without more knowledge,
they are limited in what they can do.
There is no doubt British honey will be in short supply by Christmas
[2008], but Davey, who used to work in the trade, says it is highly
unlikely shops will have none at all, because Rowse, Hartley’s and
Gale’s — the big 3 British suppliers — import it from all over the
world, then blend and package it for supermarkets.
However, the world’s big producers of honey, the USA and Argentina,
have also suffered large losses. The former dropped its yield by 36
percent on last year due to colony collapse disorder (CCD), a
mysterious disappearance linked to the blood-sucking varroa mite,
lethal viruses, malnutrition, pesticides, and a lack of genetic
diversity. And in Argentina there was a 27 percent decrease in the
harvest, boosting the price of honey by up to 60 percent.
You can expect to pay around GBP 3 [USD 5.30] for a jar of Berkshire
honey, a creeping-up in price partly the result of the bee crisis but
largely due to the European ban on the import of Chinese honey in 2002.
In the UK, a survey by the British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA)
revealed that nearly one in 3 of the 240 000 honey-bee hives did not
survive this winter and spring.
BBKA president Tim Lovett says: “Average winter bee losses due to
poor weather and disease vary from between 5 and 10 percent, so a 30
percent loss is deeply worrying. This spells serious trouble for
pollination services and honey producers.”
BBKA is calling on the Government to pour GBP 8 million [USD 14 145
647] over 5 years into researching honey-bee losses and improving bee
health, small change if you consider the value of bees to pollination
— the boost in crop production — was GBP 165m [USD 291 753 971] in
the UK. Currently, GBP 200 000 [USD 353 641] a year is spent on
research and Defra [UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs] allocates GBP 1.3 million [USD 2 298 667] for bee health. The
only response to those calls has come from Rowse, which earlier this
month committed GBP 100 000 [USD 176 820] for honey-bee health
research over the next 3 years.
[Byline: Alison Hepworth]
—
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Susan Baekeland
[The decline in bees, whether from colony collapse disorder, any of a
number of chemicals, or from mites, is taking a serious toll on
pollination and may affect a variety of food crops. - Mod.TG]
[A map of the United Kingdom is available at:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cia08/united_kingdom_sm_2008.gif
- CopyEd.EJP]
[see also:
Colony collapse disorder, apis - Germany: chemical ban 20080613.1868
2007
