Inhalt: Working Group on Microbials and Bees
History and Aims
The Working Group on Microbials and Bees was formed in 2017 to address the unique issues around microbial pesticide hazard testing on bees. Microbial pesticides present challenges that are not encountered in testing with conventional pesticides, including the need to assess the toxicity, pathogenicity, and infectivity of microbes and how such microbes may interact with the natural flora/fauna associated with bees. Current test guidelines/guidance rely on methods developed for chemical pesticides, which may not address these challenges. The Working Group on Microbials and Bees recently completed an overview paper to outline the challenges with testing microbial pesticides on bees, with a goal of starting discussions around these issues.
The Working Group includes members from government organizations involved in policy development and regulation of microbial pesticides and/or tasked with protecting bees and other pollinators, research institutions focused on improvements to testing and/or bee health, contract research organizations that perform testing with microbial pesticides and bees, and the regulated community tasked with providing data to meet regulatory testing requirements.
Inhalt: Chairs and Contact
Abdulrahim T. Alkassab
Julius Kühn Institute (JKI)
Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants
Institute for Bee Protection
E-Mail: abdulrahim.alkassab@julius-kuehn.de
Daniel R. Schmehl
Bayer ScropScience LLC
Research & Development
E-Mail: daniel.schmehl@bayer.com
Inhalt: Current Activities
The working group aims currently to develop an OECD guidance document for testing microbial-based pesticides on adult honey bees to assist laboratories performing these tests, which aims to improve consistency and accuracy in data generation, analysis, and interpretation.
Two runs of evaluation and method optimization and evaluation across several laboratories are are already completed to inform the development of a fit-for-purpose test protocol for adult honey bees. The target of the group is to validate a test method through the conduct of a multi-laboratory ring test with representative microbial-based pesticides covering bacteria and fungi.
Inhalt: Past Activities, Publications and Downloads
Overview of the testing and assessment of effects of microbial pesticides on bees: strengths, challenges and perspectives
Borges, S., Alkassab, A. T., Collison, E., Hinarejos, S., Jones, B., McVey, E., ... & Wassenberg, J. (2021). Overview of the testing and assessment of effects of microbial pesticides on bees: strengths, challenges and perspectives. Apidologie, 52(6), 1256-1277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-021-00900-7