Neonicotinoids are suspected to be implicated in the decline of honey bee populations. As nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists they disturb acetylcholine receptor signalling, leading to neurotoxicity. Several behavioural studies have shown links between neonicotinoid exposure and adverse effects on foraging activity, homing flight performance and reproduction but the molecular aspects underlying these effects are not well understood. We have elucidated the link between homing flight performance and expression of selected transcripts in the brain of honey bees. Besides possible sublethal neurotoxic effects of neonicotinoids leading to disorientation wich might adversly effect homing flight time. Neonicotinoids may also disturb energy metabolism hence causing longer homing flight time or exhaustion. To analyze the effect of neonicotinoids on homing flight time, RFID experiments were done. To this end, pollen foragers were exposed to thiamethoxam in single bee fedding and group feeding approach to test in addition the effects of feeding strategy on data scattering.
Christen V., Eyer M., Jeker L.
Disturbed energy metabolism after neonicotinoid exposure in relation to altered homing flight performance in honey bees.
In: 14th International Symposium - Hazards of pesticides to bees. 23-25 October, Ed. International commission for plant-ollinator relationships (ICP-PR), Bern. 2019, 1.
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