Abstract
Toxicological studies in honeybees have long shown that a single pesticide dose or concentration does not necessarily induce a single response. Inter-individual differences in pesticide sensitivity and/or the level of exposure (e.g., ingestion of pesticide-contaminated matrices) may explain this variability in risk posed by a pesticide. Therefore, to better inform pesticide risk assessment for honeybees, we studied the risk posed by pesticides to two behavioral castes, nurse, and forager bees, which are largely represented within colonies and which exhibit large differences in their physiological backgrounds. For that purpose, we determined the sensitivity of nurses and foragers to azoxystrobin (fungicide) and sulfoxaflor (insecticide) upon acute or chronic exposure. Azoxystrobin was found to be weakly toxic to both types of bees. However, foragers were more sensitive to sulfoxaflor than nurses upon acute and chronic exposure. This phenomenon was not explained by better sulfoxaflor metabolization in nurses, but rather by differences in body weight (nurses being 1.6 times heavier than foragers). Foragers consistently consumed more sugar syrup than nurses, and this increased consumption was even more pronounced with pesticide-contaminated syrup (at specific concentrations). Altogether, the stronger susceptibility and exposure of foragers to sulfoxaflor contributed to increases of 2 and tenfold for the acute and chronic risk quotients, respectively, compared to nurses. In conclusion, to increase the safety margin and avoid an under-estimation of the risk posed by insecticides to honeybees, we recommend systematically including forager bees in regulatory tests.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This project received funding from the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 773921 (LB, YLC, and CA).
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LB, YLC, and CA conceived the study. LB, DS, and CA conducted the experiments. LB and CA analyzed the data. YLC and CA contributed to reagents. LB, YLC, and CA wrote the manuscript. All authors read and reviewed the manuscript.
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Barascou, L., Sene, D., Le Conte, Y. et al. Pesticide risk assessment: honeybee workers are not all equal regarding the risk posed by exposure to pesticides. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 90328–90337 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21969-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21969-2