Marie-Pierre Chauzat

Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Alimentation, de l'Environnement et du Travail | ANSES · Sophia-Antipolis Laboratory

Infectious and parasitic agents (IPAs) and their associated diseases are major environmental stressors that jeopardize bee health, both alone and in interaction with other stressors. Their impact on pollinator communities can be assessed by studying multiple sentinel bee species. Here, we analysed the field exposure of three sentinel managed bee sp...

Sustainable agriculture requires balancing crop yields with the effects of pesticides on non-target organisms, such as bees and other crop pollinators. Field studies demonstrated that agricultural use of neonicotinoid insecticides can negatively affect wild bee species1,2, leading to restrictions on these compounds³. However, besides neonicotinoids...

Managed bee species provide essential pollination services that contribute to food security worldwide. However, managed bees face a diverse array of threats and anticipating these, and potential opportunities to reduce risks, is essential for the sustainable management of pollination services. We conducted a horizon scanning exercise with 20 expert...

Policies and management practices for managed bees and other pollinators are increasingly reliant on the availability of high quality data in order to inform them. This in turn requires the widespread adoption of state-of-the-art standardised methods and approaches so that new data and knowledge are both robust and trustworthy. The PoshBee project...

Pollinator insects play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and agricultural production worldwide. Yet they are subject to various infectious and parasitic agents (IPAs). To better assess their exposure to IPAs, discriminative and quantitative molecular methods have been developed. These tools produce large datasets that need to be summarise...

Among stressors affecting bee health, Nosema microsporidia are prevalent intracellular parasites. Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae have been described in honey bees (Apis spp.), while Nosema bombi has been described in bumble bees (Bombus spp.). Although available molecular methods serve as a complement to microscopic diagnosis of nosemosis, they do...

To provide a complete portrayal of the multiple factors negatively impacting insects in agricultural landscapes it is necessary to assess the concurrent incidence, magnitude, and interactions among multiple stressors over substantial biogeographical scales. Trans-national ecological field investigations with wide-ranging stakeholders typically enco...

Multiple stressors threaten bee health, a major one being pesticides. Bees are simultaneously exposed to multiple pesticides that can cause both lethal and sublethal effects. Risk assessment and most research on bee health, however, focus on lethal individual effects. Here, we performed a systematic literature review and meta-analysis that summariz...

FR Au cours de l’hiver, les colonies sont capables de maintenir une température quasi-constante et relativement élevée au sein de l’essaim, ce qui leur permet de survivre pendant la saison froide. A cause des faibles températures extérieures, les apiculteurs n’ont pas la possibilité d’observer et de surveiller leurs abeilles car l’ouverture des ruc...

To the Editor — Access to pesticide-use data is essential to accurately evaluate the adverse effects of pesticides on human and ecosystem health. In Europe, applicators are usually required to record the location and date of pesticide applications1. A subset of these data is periodically sampled to produce heavily aggregated estimates of pesticide...

PoshBee is a 5-year funded project (2018-2023) that aims to support healthy bee populations, sustainable beekeeping, and consequently pollination for crops and wildflowers across Europe. To do this we take a range of approaches, from the laboratory to the field, from molecules to ecosystems, and from fundamental science to risk assessment. This doc...

Single page summary of Vanderplank et al (2021) - contains a QR code for accessing the paper

Current global change substantially threatens pollinators, which directly impacts the pollination services underpinning the stability, structure and functioning of ecosystems. Among these threats, many synergistic drivers such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, increasing use of agrochemicals, decreasing resource diversity as well as climate...

PoshBee is a 5-year funded project (2018-2023) that aims to support healthy bee populations, sustainable beekeeping, and consequently pollination for crops and wildflowers across Europe. To do this we take a range of approaches, from the laboratory to the field, from molecules to ecosystems, and from fundamental science to risk assessment. This doc...

Vespa velutina nigrithorax is an invasive alien organism that has raised concerns in all beekeeping communities of invaded countries including the Republic of Korea, European countries and Japan. Known also as the yellow-legged hornet (or the 'Asian hornet'), it is native to northern India, eastern Nepal, Bhutan and the People's Republic of China....

Bees play an essential role in plant pollination and their decline is a threat to crop yields and biodiversity sustainability. The causes of their decline have not yet been fully identified, despite the numerous studies that have been carried out, especially on Apis mellifera. This meta-analysis was conducted to identify gaps in the current researc...

Honey bees are facing many serious threats, and Varroa destructor is of major worldwide concern. V. destructor was first observed in 2010 in the south–west Inidan Ocean island of Madagascar. Varroa spp. was first suspected in Mauritius in late July 2014. Two surveys were conducted in September and November 2014 in Mauritius and Rodrigues. The aims...

Un dépistage précoce des mortalités hivernales pourrait permettre à l'apiculteur de mieux préparer sa saison à venir en identifiant et en repérant plus tôt les pertes hivernales, et au vétérinaire d'améliorer la qualité de sa démarche diagnostique en intervenant au plus près de la survenue des mortalités. D'après certaines publications, la thermogr...

Over the past decade, in some regions of the world, honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies have experienced rates of colony loss that are difficult for beekeepers to sustain. The reasons for losses are complex and interacting, with major drivers including varroa and related viruses, pesticides, nutrition and beekeeper practices. In these endeavors...

Le dispositif Résabeilles est la déclinaison dans six départements en France du programme européen de surveillance active de la mortalité et des maladies des abeilles, Epilobee. Afin de compléter le programme européen, un volet écotoxicologique a été développé à l'automne 2013 en France, conduisant au prélèvement d'échantillons de pain d'abeille et...

For the first time, a harmonised active epidemiological surveillance programme on honeybee colony mortality (EPILOBEE) was set up in 17 European Union Member States for two consecutive years. The national protocols were based on guidelines issued by the European Union Reference Laboratory for Honeybee Health (EURL). The objective of the two-year pr...

Reports of honey bee population decline has spurred many national efforts to understand the extent of the problem and to identify causative or associated factors. However, our collective understanding of the factors has been hampered by a lack of joined up trans-national effort. Moreover, the impacts of beekeeper knowledge and beekeeping management...

Losses of honey bees have been repeatedly reported from many places worldwide. The widespread use of synthetic pesticides has led to concerns regarding their environmental fate and their effects on pollinators. Based on a standardised review, we report the use of a wide variety of honey bee matrices and sampling methods in the scientific papers stu...

L’approche épidémiologique de la santé de l’abeille domestique Apis mellifera est encore récente et motivée depuis quinze ans par l’augmentation des mortalités de colonies. Elle est conditionnée par des spécificités liées à la filière apicole. Dans le domaine de la surveillance, les objectifs doivent être déterminés avec précision pour s’assurer de...

This is the first large scale study demonstrating the varroa infestation status and related risk factors in Estonian apiaries and control measures applied. Colonies of one hundred and ninety six apiaries were sampled during 2012-2013. A questionnaire was used to record management as well as treatment procedures applied. The majority of apiaries sa...

Pollinators, which provide the agriculturally and ecologically essential service of pollination, are under threat at a global scale. Habitat loss and homogenisation, pesticides, parasites and pathogens, invasive species, and climate change have been identified as past and current threats to pollinators. Actions to mitigate these threats, e.g., agri...

The initial list of potential issues identified by the horizon-scanning process. Issues with the same number were grouped together, based on similarity, for voting

The first pan-European harmonized active epidemiological surveillance program on honeybee colony mortality (EPILOBEE) was set up across 17 European Member States to estimate honeybee colony mortality over winter and during the beekeeping season. In nine Member States, overwinter losses were higher and statistically different from the empirical leve...

Background. Pollinators, which provide the agriculturally and ecologically essential service of pollination, are under threat at a global scale. Habitat loss and homogenisation, pesticides, parasites and pathogens, invasive species, and climate change have been identified as past and current threats to pollinators. Actions to mitigate these threats...

Background. Pollinators, which provide the agriculturally and ecologically essential service of pollination, are under threat at a global scale. Habitat loss and homogenisation, pesticides, parasites and pathogens, invasive species, and climate change have been identified as past and current threats to pollinators. Actions to mitigate these threats...

Background. Pollinators, which provide the agriculturally and ecologically essential service of pollination, are under threat at a global scale. Habitat loss and homogenisation, pesticides, parasites and pathogens, invasive species, and climate change have been identified as past and current threats to pollinators. Actions to mitigate these threats...

Bulletin épidémiologique, santé animale et alimentation n o 70 19 À la suite d'une étude des dispositifs de surveillance de la mortalité des abeilles en Europe conduite sous l'égide de l'Efsa (Efsa, 2009), la Commission européenne a mandaté le laboratoire de l'Anses à Sophia-Antipolis, laboratoire de référence de l'Union européenne (LRUE), pour éla...

By law, the EU reference laboratory has to coordinate, in consultation with the Commission, the methods employed in the Member States for diagnosing the relevant honey bee diseases. The experiments run by the laboratory aim at the harmonisaton of the protocols used to study honey bee pathogens within the European Union.

The first detection of Aethina tumida Murray (the small hive beetle) in Italy occurred on 5 September 2014. Three nuclei containing honey bees (Apis mellifera) and located in a clementine (citrus) orchard near an important international harbour in the Calabria region (southern Italy) were heavily infested with adult and larval A. tumida. A. tumida...

For the first time, an epidemiological surveillance program on honeybee colony mortality (Apis mellifera L.) has been implemented (EPILOBEE) in 17 European countries. Each country has developed a surveillance protocol based on guidelines published to harmonize the procedures. A statistical model has been developed to analyze and interpret in a stan...

From the SETAC Pellston Workshop on Pesticide Risk Assessment for Pollinators January 15-21, 2011 Pensacola, Florida, USA

Honey-bee colony losses are an increasing problem in Western countries. There are many different causes, including infections due to various pathogens. Molecular biology techniques have been developed to reliably detect and identify honey-bee pathogens. The most sensitive, specific and reliable is the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactio...

Over the last few years, many European and North American countries have reported a high rate of disorders (mortality, dwindling and disappearance) affecting honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera). Although beekeeping has become an increasingly professional activity in recent years, the beekeeping industry remains poorly documented in Europe. The Europ...

Methods are described for working with Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae in the field and in the laboratory. For fieldwork, different sampling methods are described to determine colony level infections at a given point in time, but also for following the temporal infection dynamics. Suggestions are made for how to standardise field trials for evaluati...

Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae are the causative agents of nosemosis, a contagious honeybee disease that weakens bee colonies. The species are discriminated through several PCR-based methods including a multiplex PCR recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). In this study, the OIE protocol was compared to two other PCR protocol...

The frequency of occurrence and relative concentration of 44 pesticides in apicultural (Apis mellifera) matrices collected from five French locations (24 apiaries) were assessed from 2002 to 2005. The number and nature of the pesticides investigated varied with the matrices examined-living honeybees, pollen loads, honey, and beeswax. Pollen loads a...

Monitoringandrisk factorsofbeemortalityinEurope TheEuropeanFoodSafetyAuthority(EFSA)hasfundedastudy oftheassessmentofbeemortalitymonitoringprogrammes in Europe, including a compilation of thedatagenerated by the programmesandaliteraturereviewoftheriskfactorsinvolved. AFSSA coordinated this study, conducted in conjunction with seven European partner...

Three groups of 10 homogeneous honey bee colonies were placed before sunflower blooming in different surroundings within a 20 km-diameter area. Two groups were located in an area with a large surface of cultivated sunflowers, the last one being exposed to a forest environment. Exposure to sunflower culture was assessed by the acreage of cultivated...

Several cases of mortality of honey bee colonies (varying from 38 to 100%) were observed in France during the winter of 2005-6. In order to explain the causes of these mortalities, a case control study was conducted on a limited area, together with a larger survey in 18 other apiaries located in 13 sites over the entire country. Both studies includ...

A field survey was conducted between 2002 and 2005 to study honey bee colony health under beekeeping conditions. Five colonies were randomly selected in each of 24 apiaries (i.e. 120 colonies). Four thorough clinical visits were carried out each year. Results are presented on pathogen occurrence and on beekeeping conditions, with a special focus on...

Current evidence demonstrates that a sixth major extinction of biological diversity event is underway. 1. The Earth is losing between one and ten percent of biodiversity per decade 2., mostly due to habitat loss, pest invasion, pollution, over-harvesting and disease 3. Certain natural ecosystem services are vital for human societies. Many fruit, nu...

A 3-yr field survey was carried out in France, from 2002 to 2005, to study honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colony health in relation to pesticide residues found in the colonies. This study was motivated by recent massive losses of honey bee colonies, and our objective was to examine the possible relationship between low levels of pesticide residues i...

A 3-yr field survey was carried out in France, from 2002 to 2005, to study honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colony health in relation to pesticide residues found in the colonies. This study was motivated by recent massive losses of honey bee colonies, and our objective was to examine the possible relationship between low levels of pesticide residues i...

ince its first introduction to France in 2004, Vespa velutina has spread to 24 'départements' from the Charente-Maritime to the Gard (Haxaire et al, 2006) (Figure 1). Its introduction was first officially noticed in 2005 in Lot-et-Garonne. However field information has reported that some 'black hornets' have been observed in the vicinity of a or-na...

Background: Soil or seed applied plant protection products (PPPs) aim at bringing the amount of active substance involved to the only parts of the plant that have to be protected. Despite a reduced exposure of non target organisms by this way, an exposure of honey bees through residues in pollen and/or nectar may not be excluded for substances that...

Various investigations carried out in France since 1987 have shown the correlation between winter mortality and diseases in bees. In 2008, very high mortality rates are back despite the removal from the market of the systemic insecticides Gaucho NT and Regent NT The overall clinical picture observed in the colonies has not changed since the late 80...

American foulbrood (AFB) is one of the most serious and widespread bacterial disease of Apis mellifera. The causal agent, Paenibacillus larvae, has a significant capacity to spread. The disease can be controlled by the destruction of broods presenting clinical signs and flame desinfection of contaminated equipment. Due to major AFB epidemics, Oxyte...

Différentes enquêtes réalisées en France depuis 1987 ont montré une corrélation entre la mortalité hivernale et les maladies des abeilles. En 2008, les taux de mortalité sont de nouveau très importants malgré la suppression des insecticides systémiques GauchoNT et RégentNT. Les symptômes rencontrés dans les colonies, et qui ont très peu évolué au c...

In 2002 a field survey was initiated in French apiaries in order to monitor the health of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera L.). Studied apiaries were evenly distributed across five sites located in continental France. Beeswax samples were collected once a year over 2 years from a total of 125 honey bee colonies. Multiresidue analyses were perform...

Les abeilles au sens large représentent plus de 20 000 espèces dans le monde. Or, un déclin des populations d'abeilles a été récemment observé en Europe (Biesmeijer et al., 2006 ; Rasmont et al., 2006). Il pose le problème du risque de disparition de ces insectes auxiliaires et de sa répercussion sur les activités humaines qui leur sont liées comme...

For assessing the efficacy of Apivar ND (active substance : amitraz) which has been suspected to be lower after resistance to amitraz had been observed in Varroa destructor, the number of varroas fallen on bottom board inserts have been followed in ten colonies treated Apivar ND during autumn and at the beginning of winter 2005 and the number of re...

In Europe, bees, honey bee populations, and honey production have recently exhibited signs of weakness and decrease. These observations enlighten the risk to which overall insect pollinators populations are subjected to. Preservation of their habit is necessary but has never been taken into account. Fallowing area initiated by the European common a...

Bees, honey bee populations, and honey production in Europe, have recently exhibited signs of weakness and decrease. These observations underline the risk which overall pollinator insect populations are currently running. Preserving their habitat is a key aspect that has never been dealt with. The fallow area strategy initiated by the European comm...

In 2002, a field survey was initiated on French apiaries to monitor weakness of honey bee, Apis mellifera L., colonies. Apiaries were evenly distributed in five sites located on continental France. Five colonies were randomly selected in each apiary, leading to a total of 125 studied honey bee colonies. For 3 yr (starting in autumn 2002), colonies...

During the early 1990s, the eucalyptus psyllid, Ctenarytaina eucalypti Maskell, was accidentally introduced into Ireland and began to threaten economically a newly developing ornamental foliage production industry based in the south west. The life cycle of the psyllid was studied at three field sites in Co. Kerry. The psyllid exhibited a complex se...