The Effect of Organochlorine Insecticides on Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Deaths Seen in Adana Region

Abstract

Our society has attached great importance to beekeeping and honey since the past, and the popularity of other bee products in recent years has made beekeeping and bee health even more important. There are many reasons that can cause colony loss, which is seen together with intense deaths in bees, one of them is death due to toxicity caused by pesticides. In the study, 188 bee samples received between January and April 2015-2018 in Adana region were examined. These samples were examined qualitatively in terms of organochlorine pesticides by scanning the pesticides with gas chromatography device and scanning analysis method with GC-MS technique in materials with suspected poisoning. In the examination of the bee samples, there was no detectable level of any substance in terms of organochlorine pesticides. This situation showed that organochlorine pesticides did not play a role in bee colony losses in the samples received in Adana province and its surroundings between 2015-2018 due to the suspicion of toxicity due to heavy bee deaths. It should be kept in mind that deaths with massive bee colony losses may be due to different pesticide types and / or subacute and acute diseases.

Keywords

• Apis mellifera
• honey bee
• organochlorine
• insecticide
• poisoning

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