Bayer says third bee study is “seriously flawed”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Bayer CropScience released an official statement about the methodology and conclusions of a Harvard University study that claims a link between the active ingredient imidacloprid (found in certain Bayer insecticides) and honey bee colony collapse. Just as the company did last week pertaining to two European bee studies and neonicotinoid insecticides, it contends the study was conducted outside of appropriate scientific protocol and delivers too high a dose of insecticide compared to real-life field situations. The Bayer Cropscience official statement is below:

Bayer CropScience has reviewed the study for publication in the June issue of the Bulletin of Insectology regarding imidacloprid’s supposed impact on honey bee colony health. The study is factually inaccurate and is seriously flawed, both in its methodology and conclusions.

Although the study claims to have established a link between imidacloprid and bee colony collapse, the symptoms observed in the study bees are not consistent with, or even remotely similar to, those of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). As such, the authors’ claims that their study explains the causes of CCD are spectacularly incorrect.     

Additionally, the authors assume erroneously that the majority of corn grown in the United States has been treated with imidacloprid. In actuality, over the past 8 years, the annual percentage of total corn acres in the U.S. treated with imidacloprid has been less than half a percent. Thus, the suggestion that imidacloprid is affecting honey bee health via residue found on corn or through corn products is also grossly inaccurate. 

The study’s additional flaws include the following: 

• The imidacloprid concentrations selected for testing were NOT based on measured residues in high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), but on a series of implausible and unsubstantiated assumptions.
• The study bees were fed HFCS spiked with different levels of imidacloprid that were far above real-world exposure levels.
• In separate research, analysis from actual field grown corn samples, have shown no detectable imidacloprid residues in HFCS.
• The study lacked replication of test colonies within apiaries and the total number of colonies per treatment group were too few to allow a meaningful statistical analysis of colony survival. 
• The authors ignored the scientific consensus that bee health is impaired by multiple factors, including inadequate diet, pests and parasites such as the varroa mite, microbial diseases, mismanaged colonies, and loss of genetic diversity.

Comments (6) Leave a comment 

"In separate research, analysis from actual field grown corn samples, have shown no detectable imidacloprid residues in HFCS."
Where's the link to this research?

can you honestly tell us that the use and overuse of pestcides is NOT responsible for the decline in the bee population? I know of bee keepers that look for organic acres so they don't lost their entire bee colonies?

can you honestly tell us that the use and overuse of pestcides is NOT responsible for the decline in the bee population? I know of bee keepers that look for organic acres so they don't lost their entire bee colonies?

I have just done a literature study on why the honeybee (which is not native to North America) is in decline, and unfortunately for "Pat" and likeminded "organic's" ..... there are a number of mites and diseases that are cauing their downfall, and it is actually pesticides that are permitting them to survive at all if managed properly. I do believe there are bee farmers that search for organic acres, but it has nothing to do with the health of their bees or the quality of their honey, only to do with the marketing spin they can charge the city folks for.

Let's not dwell on the lack of bees, butterflies, birds are why that is happening? How about people and the cancer rate is going out of sight! I was personally affected by the use of 2-4-D and became very sick, it took months to feel better. can't we grow crops without the continued use of chemicals? by the way, we have been organic farmers since 1991.