Earlier this week, Bluestem posted about how neonicotinoids cause harm to bees Bayer's beewashing: PAN post exposes tactics.
Now the Guardian's environmental editor Daiman Carrington reports in Monsanto's global weedkiller harms honeybees, new research finds that Roundup (glyphosate), the world's most used weed-killer, may be contributing to the decline in bees, as well as creating the loss of habitat:
The world’s most used weedkiller damages the beneficial bacteria in the guts of honeybees and makes them more prone to deadly infections, new research has found.
Previous studies have shown that pesticides such as neonicotinoids cause harm to bees, whose pollination is vital to about three-quarters of all food crops. Glyphosate, manufactured by Monsanto, targets an enzyme only found in plants and bacteria.
However, the new study shows that glyphosate damages the microbiota that honeybees need to grow and to fight off pathogens. The findings show glyphosate, the most used agricultural chemical ever, may be contributing to the global decline in bees, along with the loss of habitat.
“We demonstrated that the abundances of dominant gut microbiota species are decreased in bees exposed to glyphosate at concentrations documented in the environment,” said Erick Motta and colleagues from University of Texas at Austin in their new paper. They found that young worker bees exposed to glyphosate exposure died more often when later exposed to a common bacterium.
Other research, from China and published in July, showed that honeybee larvae grew more slowly and died more often when exposed to glyphosate. An earlier study, in 2015, showed the exposure of adult bees to the herbicide at levels found in fields “impairs the cognitive capacities needed for a successful return to the hive”.
“The biggest impact of glyphosate on bees is the destruction of the wildflowers on which they depend,” said Matt Sharlow, at conservation group Buglife. “Evidence to date suggests direct toxicity to bees is fairly low, however the new study clearly demonstrates that pesticide use can have significant unintended consequences.” . . .
The new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that some of the key beneficial bacteria in bees’ guts have the enzyme that is targeted by glyphosate. It also found that the ability of newly emerged worker bees to develop a normal gut biome was hampered by glyphosate exposure. . . .
Monsanto denies the findings, Carrington reports:
A spokesman for Monsanto said: “Claims that glyphosate has a negative impact on honey bees are simply not true. No large-scale study has found any link between glyphosate and the decline of the honeybee population. More than 40 years of robust, independent scientific evidence shows that it poses no unreasonable risk for humans, animal, and the environment generally.”
In August, the BBC reported in Monsanto faces a surge in lawsuits following cancer ruling:
American agro-chemicals company Monsanto is facing a surge in lawsuits that may cost its new owners, Bayer, billions in damages.
Monsanto manufactures glyphosate-based weedkillers which some believe are carcinogenic.
Last month it lost a $289m (£225m) court case that alleged its products Roundup and RangerPro had led to a Californian man's terminal cancer.
Bayer said the number of outstanding cases had risen from 5,200 to 8,000. . . .
[Bayer chief executive Werner] Baumann reiterated Bayer's stance that the court's verdict was not in line with the approach taken by regulators in the US and elsewhere, which allow the use of glyphosate-based weedkillers.
However, scientific opinion is divided.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last September concluded that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.
But the World Health Organization in 2015 classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans."
We'll continue to follow pollinator (and human) protection stories.
Photo Honeybees.
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