Bee poisoning link with paraquat

An animal poisoning report has revealed a number of bee deaths related to paraquat sprayed on genetically modified rape crops.

By calling 0800 321600 anyone can report a suspected animal poisoning and an investigation – assuming sufficient evidence to link the death with pesticide use – will be carried out by the UK Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS). The WIIS 2000 report on Pesticide Poisoning in Animals analyses reported incidents that arose through the approved or illegal use of pesticides. No major trends are apparent. In 2000 incidents due to abuse and incidents concerning birds of prey increased compared to 1999, although neither is apparently out of line with patterns dating from 1994.
    Of the cases where the cause of death was determined 10% of cases resulted from the approved use of pesticides, 59% from deliberate abuse, 14% from misuse, 2% from veterinary use and 15% from unspecified use.
    The report highlights a number of poisonings involving beneficial insects. The majority of these incidents involved honey bees killed through paraquat sprayed on GM rape. GM crops are only permitted to be planted in the UK on government approved trials, so when it was discovered that commercially sold Hyola rape was contaminated with GM seeds, the crops were destroyed using paraquat. The spraying occurred on dry calm days, and although some farmers contacted local beekeepers prior to spraying in most cases the vicinity of beekeepers was not known to the sprayer, and in one case the farmer thought that the herbicide was ‘bee friendly’. Many bee colonies were affected, and one beekeeper kept his colonies closed for 18 hours until dusk the day after spraying but his hives were still ‘seriously affected’.

EA Barnett, MR Fletcher, K Hunter and EA Sharp, Pesticide Poisoning and Animals 2000: Investigations of Suspected Incidents in the United Kingdom, DEFRA publications, Admail 6000, London SW1A 2XX, Tel +44(0)8459556000, 2002, £3.00, 47pp.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 55, March 2002, page 11]