Biocide contamination of honey bees, honey and pollen

Year 2017, Issue: Issue 1(2) - 3. INTERNATIONAL BIOCIDAL CONGRESS, 11 - 11, 01.02.2017

Emre Özaslan Muhsin Akbaba Hakan Demirhindi

Abstract

 

Honey
is a natural product that is widely used for nutritional purposes. Honey like
other foods is prone to various types of contaminations and adulterations.
There are two major sources of honey bee pesticide contaminations: 1- Direct
application of pesticides in bee hives 2- Environmental contamination which
consist of four different pathways: a) Direct contact with crop protection
pesticide used in plants and soils or encounter with direct pesticide spray
drift. b) Consumption of contaminated pollen and nectar. c) Picking
contaminants through tainted water. d) Inhalation of pesticides during daily
out hive flight Microbial and nonmicrobial contaminants which include
pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, or heavy metals have been reported in
various honey samples all over the world. There is a serious harmful effect of
pesticide residues on both consumer’s health and honey bees. Pesticide health
concern varies from mild skin irritation to birth defects, endocrine disorders,
nervous malfunction, even coma and death. More than 150 different pesticides
have been recorded in colony samples. The highest rate of contamination belongs
to varroacides, which has accumulation effect in bee breeds, beeswax and
pollen. The most important persistent organic pollutants are aldrin,
heptachlor, chlordane, DDT, endrin, dihedron, hexachlorobenzene, mirex and
toxaphene. Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used and highly toxic
to honey bees, have been found in analyses of honey bee pollen and comb
material. Although it’s forbidden to use antibiotics in apiculture, residues of
sulphadimidine, tetracyclin and streptomycin are found in 10-15% of honey
samples in a study made in our country. In 2000, naphtaline residues have been
detected in 32% of the samples taken from honey being exported to the European
Union from our country. Several studies have demonstrated the presence of a
wide range of pesticides in pollen loads at various concentrations from trace
amounts to hundreds of micrograms per kilogram.

 

 

 

Keywords:
biocide, honey,
honey bee, pesticide

Keywords

Biocide contamination of honey bees

References

• Emre Özaslan, Muhsin Akbaba, Hakan Demirhindi çukurova university medicine faculty, public health department, adana