A BRITISH study says there is no clear consistent relationship between a widely-used insecticide and harm to bumble bees.
The findings by the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) fly in the face of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) which found, under labratory conditions, neonicotinoids, used by most oilseed rape growers, posed an unacceptable risk to bee colonies.
An attempt by the European Commission to suspend use of the chemical for two years failed in Brussels last month.
FERA tested the effects of neonicotinoid seed treatments on bumble bee colonies under field conditions and concluded: “Were neonicotinoids in pollen and nectar from treated oilseed rape to be a major source of field mortality and morbidity to bumblebee colonies, we would have expected there to have been a clear relationship between observed neonicotinoid levels and measures of colony success. The absence of these effects is reassuring, but not definitive.
“The study underlines the importance of taking care in extrapolating laboratory toxicology studies to the field as well as the great need of further studies under natural conditions.”
Last week pesticide manufacturers Syngenta and Bayer CropScience announced they were going to “scale up” creating field margins of flowers for bees, support a field monitoring programme for bee health and fund research into solutions to bee parasites and viruses.