Findings of herbicide and fungicide residues in bee bread

Aneta Bokšová, Jan Kazda, Martina Stejskalová, Tomáš Šubrt, Leoš Uttl, Petr Mráz and Jan Bartoška
Additional contact information
Aneta Bokšová: Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Jan Kazda: Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Martina Stejskalová: Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Tomáš Šubrt: Department of Systems Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Leoš Uttl: Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Petr Mráz: Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Jan Bartoška: Department of Systems Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Plant, Soil and Environment, 2021, vol. 67, issue 6, 343-352

Abstract: The honey bee is one of the insects that is significantly endangered by the application of pesticides in the cultivation of crops. Not only is acute toxicity dangerous, but the importance of chronic poisoning by low doses of pesticides in hives is growing. The behavior of bees can be affected not only by insecticide residues but also by herbicide and fungicide residues. In 2016-2018, samples of bee bread were analysed for pesticide content at 25 different localities from intensive agricultural production areas of the Czech Republic. Substances were extracted by QuEChERS and determined by liquid chromatography, together with mass spectrometric detection. We detected up to 18 pesticides in one sample. In total, during 2016-2018, we identified 53 active substances. Fifteen substances (31%) were herbicidal, 23 substances (47%) of fungicidal nature and 6 substances (12%) of insecticidal nature. The coefficient of variation showed large differences in the frequency of revealed pesticides between years. For substances sprayed outside period attractive for pollinators (mainly herbicides and some fungicides), the usual methodology cannot reliably determine the degree of contamination, and thus the actual contamination with these substances may be even higher than demonstrated in this study.

Keywords: pollen; chemical analyses; plant protection; Apis mellifera L.; chronic toxicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/135/2021-PSE.html (text/html)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/135/2021-PSE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpse:v:67:y:2021:i:6:id:135-2021-pse

DOI: 10.17221/135/2021-PSE

Access Statistics for this article

Plant, Soil and Environment is currently edited by Kateřina Součková

More articles in Plant, Soil and Environment from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().