Roundup can make bees prone to deadly infections

<img data-attachment-id = "437680" data-permalink = "https://www.courthousenews.com/roundup-may-make-bees-prone-to-fatal-infections/honeybee-mum/" -file = "https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg?fit=1000%2C621&ssl=1" data-orig-size = "1000, 621 "data-comments-opens =" ​​0 "data-image-meta =" {"opening": "0", "credit": "", "camera": "", "legend": "", "created_timestamp ":" 0 "," copyright ":" "," focal_length ":" 0 "," iso ":" 0 "," shutter_speed ":" 0 "," title ":" "," orientation ":" 0 "}" data-image-title = "Honeybee Mom" ​​data-image-description = "

"data-medium-file =" https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg?fit=300%2C186&ssl=1 "big- file = "https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg?fit=1000%2C621&ssl=1" class = "size of the 39; alignment -medium wp-image-437680 "src =" https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg?resize=300% 2C186 "alt =" "width =" 300 "height =" 186 "srcset =" https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg ? resize = 300% 2C186 & ssl = 1 300w, https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg?resize=768%2C477&ssl= 1 768w, https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg?resize=24%2C15&ssl=1 24w, https: // i2. wp.com/www .courthousenews.com / wp-content / uploads / 2018/09 / Honeybee-mum.jpg? resize = 36% 2C22 & ssl = 1 36w, https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/ uploads / 2018/09 / Honeybee-mum.jpg? resize = 48% 2C30 & ssl = 1 48w, https://i2.wp.com/www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Honeybee-mum.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1 1000w " sizes = "(maximum width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" data-recalc-dims = "1" />(CN) – The active ingredient in Roundup, a popular herbicide, kills bees indirectly, according to a study released Monday that says the herbicide is altering the balance of bacteria in the digestive tract of bees and making them more vulnerable to infection. threatening.

Since glyphosate targets an enzyme found only in plants and certain microorganisms, Roundup is considered safe for animals, including bees. But a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that the controversial chemical reduces the number of protective bacteria in the intestines, many of which possess the targets of the glyphosate enzyme.

According to Erick Motta, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin who led the research alongside evolutionist biologist Nancy Moran, fewer good bacteria are found in the gut, pathogens immune to glyphosate.

Bees whose microbiomes are weakened by glyphosate died much more often when they were later exposed to a common pathogen compared to bees with a healthy microbiome.

"It's a very complex story that we always try to understand," Motta said in an interview.

Motta and Moran exhibited two groups of about 650 bees each at different concentrations of glyphosate that are commonly found in crop fields, yards and roadsides and labeled them with paint for identify them easily on the UT-Austin campus.

After three days, they found a statistically significant reduction in four of the eight dominant species of beneficial intestinal bacteria in exposed bees. According to Motta, the four affected species were reduced by more than half compared to the control bees.

In a second experiment, the bees were exposed to Serratia marcescens, a widespread opportunistic pathogen affecting bees worldwide. About half of the bees with a healthy digestive tract were still alive eight days after exposure to the pathogen, but only about one tenth of the bees with microbiomes with glyphosate were still alive.

Motta said the findings could implicate glyphosate in the mess of colony collapse, a phenomenon in which millions of bees began to disappear from their hives about 12 years ago, leaving the farms with fewer bees to pollinate the crops. Exposure to pesticides and antibiotics, loss of habitat and bacterial infections are also considered guilty.

Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex in the UK, also said the new findings implicate glyphosate in the phenomenon.

"Those of us who study bees have long come to the conclusion that colony health is affected by a number of interacting stressors, including exposure to insecticide cocktails." , fungicides, the effects of pathogens and the effects of poor nutrition ". studies the ecology of bees, written in an email.

"It seems now that we need to add glyphosate to the list of problems they are facing. There is also evidence that large-scale application of large quantities of pesticides has negative consequences that are often difficult to predict. "

Because of its low toxicity, glyphosate has become the most widely used agrochemical product in history. Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer, launched Roundup in 1974 and its use exploded in 1996 after the company began selling "Roundup-ready" seeds designed to resist the herbicide. According to the US Geological Survey, more than 2.6 billion pounds of this product were released on US farmland and shipyards between 1992 and 2012.

Motta said that guidelines for the use of glyphosate may need to be changed. He and Moran recommend that farmers and gardeners avoid spraying glyphosate herbicides on flowering plants when bees are foraging.

But Motta warned that additional research is needed first. His team, which includes former UT-Austin postdoctoral researcher Kasie Raymann, initially intended to track bees long enough to see if their microbiota would recover from glyphosate exposure. But most of the marked bees had left the hive after three days, probably due to illness or stress.

Motta said that he intended to follow bees exposed to glyphosate in the longer term in a follow-up study.

"Maybe when we have [more] results, if we see something similar, we can start thinking about ways to avoid this exposure, "he said.

John Boelts, owner and operator of Desert Premium Farms in Yuma County, Arizona, agreed.

"If changes are needed in farming practices to protect pollinators, farmers will be the first to want to do it," Boelts said by phone. Bees, he says, "are absolutely essential. The things we eat, the things we put on the table depend on it absolutely. "

But Boelts, who grows lettuce, cantaloupe, cotton, durum wheat and other crops on 4,000 acres of land, said that if further research did not corroborate Motta's and Moran's results, it would not change not most other farmers will do it either. Glyphosate causes less environmental damage than other herbicides and older farming practices such as plowing, and previous research has found no adverse effects on adult bees in colonies treated with high glyphosate levels.

"The claims that glyphosate has a negative impact on bees are not supported by more than 40 years of solid, independent scientific research and more than 30 years of hands-on experience with this product," Boelts said. "Science shows that it is safe for humans, animals and the environment."

On the phone, Motta acknowledged that it could be rejected by people who use glyphosate, particularly in light of the recent $ 289 million jury verdict that Roundup caused terminal lymphoma in a school gardener. By arguing that it is scientifically impossible to determine the cause of cancer in a person, some see the verdict as the start of a campaign to eliminate the herbicide.

The fact that colony collapse syndrome has not been reported in Australia despite the use of Roundup and that Roundup has been sold for about three decades prior to the occurrence of the phenomenon may also prompt users to question its opinion.

"I'm ready to talk and have a good conversation," said Motta. "It's always useful."