Meeting Abstract
Fungicides and insecticides have garnered interest for their role in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which is affecting honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) populations across the United States and Europe. Deltamethrin is a pyrethroid insecticide with applications in agriculture and pest control and it has been shown to be lethal to honey bees at high dosages. In this study we assessed the effects of sublethal dosages of Deltamethrin, as approved for commercial use by government agencies, on the motor control and central nervous system processing of honey bees. Experiments were conducted near Bursa, Turkey. We fed six sublethal concentrations, dilutions of the LD50 79 ng/bee in 1.5 M sucrose, to harnessed honey bees to measure adverse effects on motor control and central nervous system (CNS) processing. Bees were randomly assigned to a sublethal dose treatment, fed, and scored after four hours for motor response in their wings, legs, abdomen, and proboscis extension reflex (PER). A sucrose sensitivity assay was done to investigate the effects of deltamethrin on CNS control of the PER. We found that motor control was impaired at the two highest sublethal doses (1/5 and 1/10 LD50), but was not different from controls at lower sublethal doses. Sucrose sensitivity of the PER was reduced by the highest sublethal dose of deltamethrin. Deltamethrin therefore impairs physiological components of foraging, motor coordination and CNS processing, and may pose a significant risk to foraging behavior in Apis mellifera.
