Ear Hustle

Over 37 Million Bees found Dead After Corn Field Treated With Neonicotinoid Pesticide

Over 37 Million Bees found Dead After Corn Field Treated With Neonicotinoid Pesticide

Millions of bees dropped dead after GMO corn was planted few weeks ago in Ontario, Canada. The local bee keeper, Dave Schuit who produces honey in Elmwood lost about 37 million bees which are about 600 hives.

“Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” Schuit said. While many bee keepers blame neonicotinoids, or “neonics.” for colony collapse of bees and many countries in EU have banned neonicotinoid class of pesticides, the US Department of Agriculture fails to ban insecticides known as neonicotinoids, manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc.

Nathan Carey another local farmer says that this spring he noticed that there were not enough bees on his farm and he believes that there is a strong correlation between the disappearance of bees and insecticide use.

New research shows that neonicotinoid pesticides kill honeybees by damaging their immune system:

A new study published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that neonicotinoid pesticides kill honeybees by damaging their immune system and making them unable to fight diseases and bacteria.

The research team in Italy suggests that exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides results in increased levels of a protein in bees that prevents an important molecule involved in the immune system respond making bees more susceptible to be attacked by harmful viruses.

The findings of the leading author of the study, Francesco Pennacchio, and his colleagues show that millions of bees are dying because insecticides like neonicotinoid pesticides that are mainly suppressing the immune system of bees.

In fact, the research team discovered that a protein family similar to what found in other animals is responsible for regulating the immune response in bees. The researchers found out that once bees are exposed to lethal doses of the neonicotinoid clothianidin, the leucine-rich repeat protein family (known as LRR) can suppress the activity of a key protein involved in immune signalling, called NF-κB.

 

Source:  Jbanews

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