Jozef Van der Steen

• PhD
• Consultant at Alveus AB Consultancy

A headspace gas chromatographic tandem mass spectrometric (HS-GC-MS/MS) method was developed and fully validated, aiming for the simultaneous determination of 25 volatile organic compounds (VOCs, some of them previously unreported in honey bee studies) in 52 selected honey samples from Greece. The HS conditions were optimized, and method validation...

Environmental monitoring is crucial for assessing the overall state of the ecosystems in terms of contaminant impact and chemical landscape. The use of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies considerably eases the sampling activities, as honey bees are exposed to a wide range of substances that are transported and accumulated within the beehives. In t...

One of the most critical steps for accurate taxonomic identification in DNA (meta)-barcoding is to have an accurate DNA reference sequence dataset for the marker of choice. Therefore, developing such a dataset has been a long-term ambition, especially in the Viridiplantae kingdom. Typically, reference datasets are constructed with sequences downloa...

With the breakthrough of DNA (meta)-barcoding, it soon became clear that one of the most critical step for accurate taxonomic identification is to have an accurate DNA reference database for the DNA barcode marker of choice. Therefore, developing such a database has been a long-term ambition, especially in the Viridiplantae kingdom. Typically, refe...

In Europe, the risk assessment for bees on EU or national level has always focussed on potential impacts on honeybees. During the revision of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) bee guidance it was explicitly stated that bumblebees and solitary bees should be considered as well and consequently concerns were raised regarding the representativ...

Pollen metabarcoding is emerging as a powerful tool for ecological research and offers unprecedented scale in citizen science projects for environmental monitoring via honey bees. Biases in metabarcoding can be introduced at any stage of sample processing and preservation is at the forefront of the pipeline. While in metabarcoding studies pollen ha...

p>Due to their foraging behavior, honey bees interact with the landscape. As a result, honey bees and their brood will be exposed to pesticides through nectar and pollen entering the hive. Although these pathways seem rather straightforward, there are several steps between the entry of nectar and pollen and its consumption by the colony. One of the...

Nectar of honeybee colonies has been used in order to identify heavy metals and establish the benefit of this type of studies as a tool for environmental management. For these goals, samples of nectar were obtained from Apis mellifera hives placed in the city of Córdoba (Spain) and its surroundings. Five stations (each with two hives) were selected...

This poster was presented at the Apimondia 2019 in Montreal. Opinions and discussions are welcome, but the poster won't be changed anymore as it was already presented. To those of you who wanted the file of the chapter on the same topic: we're not allowed to share it, I'm sorry. By some reason, I can't send messages with the decline.

To date, regulatory pesticide risk assessments have relied on the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) as a surrogate test species for estimating the risk of pesticide exposure to all bee species. However, honey bees and non-Apis bees may differ in their susceptibility and exposure to pesticides. In 2017, a workshop ('Pesticide Expos...

Een op maat gesneden varroabestrijding is, naast het zorgen voor een ruim en divers nectar- en stuifmeelaanbod, dé manier om wintersterfte terug te dringen. Of, voor de imker die ons driegangenmenu goed in de vingers heeft, zelfs geheel te voorkomen.1 Varroabestrijding (op maat gesneden voor de bijen) op stand is een aanpak die een stap verder gaat...

In this study we show that honey bee colonies placed in a greenhouse for pollination of strawberry can simultaneously be used to indicate the presence of the plant pathogenic bacterium Erwinia pyrifoliae. This was demonstrated by using two methods of qualitative sacrificial and non-sacrificial bio sampling of the honey bee colony. A novel method fo...

Abstract During the late spring of 2013 strawberry plants (Fragaria × ananassa Duch. ‘Elsanta’) were showing an intense blackening of their immature fruits, their fruit calyxes and the peduncule were found at several locations (greenhouses) in The Netherlands. Symptoms include brown petals, green young fruits turning brown, malformed fruits and bac...

The 2013 EU ban of three neonicotinoids used in seed coating of pollinator attractive crops was put in place because of concern about declining wild pollinator populations and numbers of honeybee colonies. It was also concluded that there is an urgent need of good field data to fill knowledge gaps. In the meantime such data have been generated. Bas...

Estimating the exposure of honeybees to pesticides on a landscape scale requires models of their spatial foraging behaviour. For this purpose, we developed a mechanistic, energetics-based model for a single day of nectar foraging in complex landscape mosaics. Net energetic efficiency determined resource patch choice. In one version of the model a s...

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In June 2008, a surveillance study for metals in honeybees was performed in the Netherlands. Randomly, 150 apiaries were selected. In each apiary, five colonies were sampled. Per apiary, the hive samples were pooled. The apiary sample was analysed for Al, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Sb, Se, Sn, Sr, Ti, V and Zn. All metals could be dete...

In this study we show that the honeybee colonies placed in a greenhouse for pollination of strawberry can simultaneously be used to indicate the presence of the plant pathogen Erwinia pyrifoliae. This was demonstrated using two methods of qualitative bio-indication: sacrificial and nonsacrificial subsampling. The non-sacrificial subsampler Beehold...

p>In June 2008, a surveillance study for metals in honeybees was performed in the Netherlands. Randomly, 150 apiaries were selected. In each apiary, five colonies were sampled. Per apiary, the hive samples were pooled. The apiary sample was analysed for Al, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Sb, Se, Sn, Sr, Ti, V and Zn. All metals could be de...

Estimating the exposure of honeybees to pesticides on a landscape scale requires models of their spatial foraging behaviour. For this purpose, we developed a mechanistic, energetics-based model for a single day of nectar foraging in complex landscape mosaics. The hive population was assumed to select the resource patch with highest net energetic ef...

Estimating the exposure of honeybees to pesticides on a landscape scale requires models of their spatial foraging behaviour. For this purpose, we developed a mechanistic, energetics-based model for a single day of nectar foraging in complex landscape mosaics. The hive population was assumed to select the resource patch with highest net energetic ef...

Due to features that make them outstanding environmental bioindicator, colonies of Apis mellifera are being used to study environmental pollution. The primary objective of this research was to use honeybee colonies to identify heavy metals and determine their utility for environmental management. Five stations each with two A. mellifera hives were...

Since its establishment in 2008, the COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes) association has been successful in bringing together bee research scientists, bee health specialists and extension advisors to study the causes of global honey bee losses, and now has a substantial output of papers published in refereed scientific journals. The newl...

Global declines of bumble bees and other pollinator populations are of concern because of their critical role for crop production and maintenance of wild plant biodiversity. Although the consensus among scientists is that the interaction of many factors, including habitat loss, forage scarcity, diseases, parasites, and pesticides potentially plays...

The number of bees, amount of brood and haemolymph vitellogenin titre are parameters to establish the vitality of a honey bee colony. Increasing numbers of bees during summer until autumn; increasing amounts of brood in spring towards summer followed by a decrease; and low haemolymph vitellogenin titres in foraging bees and high vitellogenin titres...

“C.S.I. Pollen” aims to be the largest investigation on pollen diversity available to honey bee colonies in Europe. This should be accomplished by an international approach involving beekeepers to participate as citizen scientists.

The aim of our study was to explore whether honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) could be used as a reliable alternative to the standard mechanical devices for monitoring of air quality, in particular with respect to the concentration of the heavy metals cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and vanadium (V). We therefore tested whether the concentrations of these meta...

Although honeybee risk assessment for chemicals has been rigorously revised recently, methods and techniques available for non-apis pollinators are scarce. An ICPPR working group " non-apis " was established in 2013 to address these knowledge gaps. Acute contact tests were designed and performed with solitary bees Osmia sp. but still require furthe...

Inwinteren is het slotstuk van het bijenjaar, een soort “Grande Finale” na een seizoen hard werken met de bijen. We geven onze bijen voldoende voedsel om de winter goed door te komen en in het voorjaar weer fris en vrolijk aan de slag te kunnen gaan. Gelukkig is het eenvoudig mits er aan enkele voorwaarden voldaan wordt. Waarom winteren we onze bij...

Om een inschatting te kunnen maken van het risico dat honingbijen blootgesteld worden aan gewasbeschermingsmiddelen, andere stoffen zoals atmosferische depositie van fijnstof en organismen zoals plantpathogene microorganismen, is in opdracht van het Ministerie van EZ/Landbouw een samenvatting gemaakt van de informatie, beschikbaar over de aantrekke...

Bijen en hommels zijn door hun bouw en gedrag goede bestuivers. Maar ze kunnen meer. Ze zijn ook heel geschikt om antagonistische micro-organismen voor ziektebestrijding over te brengen én informatie vanuit het veld over ziekten mee terug te nemen. Belangrijk voor al deze taken is: hoe houden we ze actief onder de ‘nieuwe’ teeltomstandigheden in de...

In 1990 is in Nederland een werkgroep opgericht om jaarlijks gevallen van massale bijensterfte te inventariseren die volgens getroffen imkers veroorzaakt zijn door blootstelling aan gewasbeschermingsmiddelen (Oomen, 1992). De werkgroep jubileert dit jaar en heeft daarom haar bevindingen met spuitschade in de afgelopen 25 jaar samengevat

In 1990 is in Nederland een werkgroep opgericht om jaarlijks gevallen van massale bijensterfte te inventariseren die volgens getroffen imkers veroorzaakt zijn door blootstelling aan gewasbeschermingsmiddelen (Oomen, 1992). De werkgroep jubileert dit jaar en heeft daarom haar bevindingen met spuitschade in de afgelopen 25 jaar samengevat

Dit artikel is een compilatie van het Wageningen-UR PRI rapport 606 ’Factoren die het foerageergedrag van honingbijen bepalen (deel I)’. In dit rapport wordt het haalgedrag van de honingbij beschreven: hoe wordt het bepaald en wat wordt verzameld en hoe. Daarnaast is in het rapport een drachtplantenlijst opgenomen (deel II). Hoe bijen drachten bezo...

n 2011, two polytunnel greenhouse experiments were conducted on seed production farms, one under conventional conditions in the South-West (Rilland) and the other under organic conditions in the East (Voorst) of the Netherlands, to study transmission routes of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc), that can result in seed infections of caulif...

Is bijensterfte het werk van neonicotinoïden? Ja, zeggen en denken velen. Volgens hen zijn de neo’s rechtstreeks verantwoordelijk voor de hoge sterfte onder bijen. Nee, toont Wagenings onderzoek aan. Intussen lijkt het met de sterfte voorzichtig de goede kant op te gaan.

De wereldwijde afname van bijen en ander bestuivers heeft grote consequenties voor de voedselzekerheid. Verdere verslechtering van de leefomstandigheden kan leiden tot het plotseling uitsterven van bestuivende insectensoorten. In Europa dreigt inmiddels een tekort aan honingbijen voor de bestuiving van landbouwgewassen. De vraag naar bestuivers gro...

A variety of methods are used in honey bee research and differ depending on the level at which the research is conducted. On an individual level, the handling of individual honey bees, including the queen, larvae and pupae are required. There are different methods for the immobilising, killing and storing as well as determining individual weight of...

Summary In this article we provide guidelines on statistical design and analysis of data for all kinds of honey bee research. Guidelines and selection of different methods presented are, at least partly, based on experience. This article can be used: to identify the most suitable analysis for the type of data collected; to optimise one’s experiment...

Modern agriculture often involves the use of pesticides to protect crops. These substances are harmful to target organisms (pests and pathogens). Nevertheless, they can also damage non-target animals, such as pollinators and entomophagous arthropods. It is obvious that the undesirable side effects of pesticides on the environment should be reduced...

Honey bee virus research is an enormously broad area, ranging from subcellular molecular biology through physiology and behaviour, to individual and colony-level symptoms, transmission and epidemiology. The research methods used in virology are therefore equally diverse. This article covers those methods that are very particular to virological rese...

This paper covers measures of field colony strength, by which we mean population measures of adult bees and brood. There are generally two contexts in which an investigator wishes to measure colony strength: 1. at the beginning of a study as part of manipulations to produce uniform colonies and reduce experimental error and; 2. as response variable...

Globally, agricultural production systems are under pressure to meet multiple challenges: to sustain or increase production from the same area of land and reduce negative impacts on the environment amid uncertainties resulting from climate change. As farming systems adapt to meet these challenges, one of agriculture’s greatest assets in meeting the...

In order to conduct a proper risk assessment of pesticides to bees, information is needed in three areas: (i) the toxicity of the pesticide; (ii) the probability of bee exposure to that pesticide; and (iii) the population dynamics of the bee species in question. Information was collected on such factors affecting pesticide risk to (primarily wild)...

Om een beter inzicht te krijgen in de praktijk van de Nederlandse imker en de bijenziekten, is in het kader van het BIJ-1 project, het Nederlands Bijenvolk Onderzoek (NBO) opgezet. Het onderzoek uitgevoerd door Bijen@wur (onderdeel van Plant Research International) en in samenwerking met het Nederlandse Centrum voor Bijenonderzoek (NCB). Het onderz...

De varroa mijtziekte (Varroa destructor) is de belangrijkste bedreiging van de Europese honingbij. Wintersterfte van honingbijen is in de meeste gevallen toe te schrijven aan deze ziekte. Deze tweede, licht gewijzigde druk biedt informatie over de biologie van varroa, de effecten van varroa op honingbijen en de bestrijding van varroa.

Deze demonstratieproef is opgezet als een Citizen Scientist (CS) project waarbij het praktische veldwerk en de waarnemingen, op aanwijzing van en gecoördineerd door PRI bijen@wur, uitgevoerd werden door bijenhouders. De analyses, interpretatie van de data en de rapportage zijn uitgevoerd door PRI bijen@wur. Voor de demonstratieproef 2012-2013 is aa...

Adult honey bees are maintained in vitro in laboratory cages for a variety of purposes. For example, researchers may wish to perform experiments on honey bees caged individually or in groups to study aspects of parasitology, toxicology, or physiology under highly controlled conditions, or they may cage whole frames to obtain freshly emerged workers...

Pollinators are important components of biodiversity and provide a key ecosystem service through pollination (Klein et al., 2007). Honeybees, mainly Apis mellifera, are the most economically valuable pollinators for crop monocultures worldwide (Wantanabe, 1994), however, for several high-value crops, e.g., coffee, Apis pollination is less effective...

Recent elevated winter loss of honey bee colonies is a major concern. The presence of the mite Varroa destructor in colonies places an important pressure on bee health. V. destructor shortens the lifespan of individual bees, while long lifespan during winter is a primary requirement to survive until the next spring. We investigated in two subsequen...

Cumulative survival curves for 2005/2006 (top) and 2006/2007 (bottom), per acaricide treatment (left), and for the marking date of the cohorts (right). Cumulative survival curves were calculated from the Cox Proportional Hazards Models for cohorts of bees marked. For the survival analysis, we had 6398 uncensored cases and 346 censored cases for 200...

Mean survivorship curves for cohorts of bees marked in 2005/2006 (left) and 2006/2007 (right). Cohorts of bees were marked at 14-day intervals for each acaricide treatment: July (open diamonds), August (grey squares), September (dark grey triangles), and not treated at all (black circles). Each line shows the mean survival of 1 to 4 cohorts. During...

In honey bee studies focusing on physiology, disease diagnosis or bio indication, bees are sampled from the colony. This raises the question of where in the colony samples must be taken from for specific study objectives. In this study we recorded where bees of known age are found in the hive. We recorded in a single brood box with ten frames in Au...

In order to conduct a proper risk assessment of pesticides to bees, information is needed in three areas: (i) the toxicity of the pesticide; (ii) the probability of bee exposure to that pesticide; and (iii) the population dynamics of the bee species in question. Information was collected on such factors affecting pesticide risk to (primarily wild)...

Tijdens het symposium van bijen@wur PRI op 18 maart vertelde Sjef van der Steen over zijn onderzoek in 2009 en 2010 naar invloed van variatie en continuïteit in de aanvoer van stuifmeel op de vitaliteit van bijenvolken. Voor Bijenhouden schreef hij een artikel over zijn aanpak en de uitkomsten, met tot slot advies voor de imker.

Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) have great potential for detecting and monitoring environmental pollution, given their wide-ranging foraging behaviour. Previous studies have demonstrated that concentrations of metals in adult honeybees were significantly higher at polluted than at control locations. These studies focused at a limited range of heavy m...

Veel bloemen hebben insecten, zoals bijvoorbeeld bijen, nodig om stuifmeel van de ene naar de ander bloem te brengen. Maar dat zal de bijen strikt genomen worst wezen. De bijen bezoeken de bloemen niet om het stuifmeel van de ene bloem naar de andere te transporteren maar om voedsel te verzamelen. Er is sprake van wederkerige afhankelijkheid. Alles...

Dat de varraomijt bestreden moet worden is voor iedere imker duidelijk. Niet bestrijden leidt tot zwakke volken en wintersterfte. Onderzoeken van PRI Bijen@wur en vele buitenlandse onderzoeksinstellingen komen, als het gaat over wintersterfte, altijd hetzelfde uit: de varroamijt is oorzaak nummer één

Varroa is de belangrijkste ziekte van de Europese honingbij. Daar zijn onderzoekers in Nederland, maar ook in de rest van de wereld het over eens (Neumann & Carreck, 2010). Zelfs na jaren van praktijkervaring en experimenteel onderzoek blijft deze parasiet onze bijen teisteren. Dat is niet zo gek, want in de 27 jaar dat varroa in Nederland wordt aa...

De varroa mijtziekte (Varroa destructor) is de belangrijkste bedreiging van de Europese honingbij. Wintersterfte van honingbijen is in de meeste gevallen toe te schrijven aan deze ziekte. Deze brochure van de WUR biedt informatie over de biologie van varroa, de effecten van varroa op honingbijen en de bestrijding van varroa.

Gewasbeschermingsmiddelen kunnen schadelijke effecten hebben op organismen waarvoor ze niet zijn bedoeld. Er is een richtsnoer ontwikkeld om testresultaten voor de toelatingsprocedure voor gewasbeschermingsmiddelen eenvormig en transparant aan te reiken. Het richtsnoer geldt specifiek voor veldstudies met niet-doelwit arthropoden (geleedpotigen) di...

Al enkele jaren duiken in de pers berichten op over massale bijensterfte. Het sterven van honingbijenvolken wordt dan gelijk gezien aan het uitsterven van de soort. Juist ná beantwoording van vragen uit de Tweede Kamer komt LNV met een inventarisatie van de actuele situatie, om te weten of aanvullende maatregelen nodig zijn om de bijenpopulatie in...

The impact of the microsporidium Nosema bombi on Bombus terrestris was studied by recording mating, hibernation success, protein titre in haemolymph, weight change during hibernation, and colony founding of queens that were inoculated with N. bombi in the larval phase. Infection with N. bombi was diagnosed in 36% of B. terrestris queens exposed to...

In BeeWorld van maart en juni 2005 stond een interessante artikelreeks van de Zwitserse onderzoekers Keller, Fluri en Imdorf over stuifmeel en honingbijen: 'Pollen nutrition and colony development in honey bees: parts 1 en 2'. Omdat het belang van stuifmeel voor een gezond bijenvolk niet genoeg benadrukt kan worden heb ik een samenvatting van beide...

In het broed van honingbijen komt een aantal broedziekten voor. Deze brochure beschrijft deze ziekten en hoe ze (preventief) bestreden moeten worden. De belangrijkste twee ziekten, Amerikaans Vuilbroed en Europees Vuilbroed krijgen bijzondere aandacht

The impact of the microsporidium Nosema bombi on Bombus terrestris was studied by recording mating, hibernation success, protein titre in haemolymph, weight change during hibernation, and colony founding of queens that were inoculated with N. bombi in the larval phase. Infection with N. bombi was diagnosed in 36% of B. terrestris queens exposed to...

To evaluate the effect of the indoxacarb 300 g kg(-1) WG, Steward 30WDG, on the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) in apple orchards, a monitoring study was conducted in Dutch apple orchards in April/May 2004. Before apple flowering began, two honey bee colonies were placed in each orchard to investigate honey bee mortality. Each hive was provided with...

Stuifmeel van paprika veroorzaakt veel allergische klachten. Het is een typisch voorbeeld van een beroepsallergie. De klachten zijn jeuk, niezen en loopneuzen, terwijl ook een trend naar een verminderde longfunctie is geconstateerd. In eerder onderzoek verminderde de inzet van honingbijen in de kas de blootstelling van de medewerkers aan het stuifm...

De enquêteresultaten laten zien dat de manier van imkeren effect heeft op wintersterfte. Varroabestrijding is hierbij heel belangrijk. Een varroabestrijding gedurende het gehele seizoen, zodat er relatief gezonde winterbijen geboren worden, helpt. Dit blijkt uit het gunstige effect van de varroabehandelingen in de zomer en het verwijderen van darre...

Op het eerste gezicht lijken Botrytis, bijen en hommels niets met elkaar te maken te hebben, maar toch is er een verband. Honingbijen en hommels kunnen namelijk botrytisinfecties helpen bestrijden of voorkomen. Veel plantpathogene schimmels, waaronder botrytis, infecteren de planten via de bloemen. Als er een andere, voor bloemen ongevaarlijke schi...

In 2001 and 2002, studies were conducted on a pollen substitute formulated for easy home preparation. Tests were done with free flying honey bee colonies. In 2001, pollen supply was restricted with pollen traps in 9 experimental colonies. Colonies were then equally divided among three treatments: (1) fed pollen substitute, (2) fed bee-collected bee...

PPO-Bijen deed vanaf 2005 onderzoek naar het effect van de Varroa destructor mijt op winterbijen

In 1999, an extensive study among bell pepper growers showed a prevalence of 53.8% work-related symptoms and 35.4% sensitisation to bell pepper pollen. Experiments with bees to remove pollen from bell pepper flowers have been done for a few years. It was the aim of this study to investigate whether bees can reduce the pollen exposure in bell pepper...