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The issue of the mortality, collapse and weakening of honeybee colonies has been observed in many European countries and also in the USA since the mid 1980s. This is a complex problem that simultaneously involves genetic, climatic and pathological aspects and directly raises the question of the impact of the quality of the environment on living beings. In order to provide responses for the situation of the French beekeeping industry as regards the current problem of bee colony mortality and to determine the associated causes, Afssa felt it was necessary to synthesise and analyse all the work carried out on the subject and carry out a collective scientific evaluation on the basis of the available data. As a result of that work, the report on “Mortality, Collapse and Weakening of Bee Colonies” was prepared and made public in February 2009.

The event of 17 June was designed for presenting the report to all interested stakeholders and pursuing the debate on these issues.

After the introduction by Pascale Briand, Director General of Afssa, the MP Martial Saddier presented the report prepared by him upon a request from the Prime Minister, “For a Sustainable Beekeeping Industry”. Reviewing the different suspected causes of mortality and the many questions that still need to be addressed, Mr Saddier particularly stressed the importance of organising the French beekeeping industry, first within an Institute of Beekeeping Techniques and then in an overall honey industry.
Philippe Vannier, Director for Animal Health and Animal Welfare at Afssa,and Bernard Toma, chairman of the working group that prepared the report on “Mortality, Collapse and Weakening of Bee Colonies”, then detailed the objectives and working methods of Afssa.

The first part of the morning was devoted to the presentation of the possible causes of bee mortality. The part played by disease and major pathogenic agents that affect the health of colonies was highlighted in a paper read by Jean-Paul Faucon of the Laboratory for Study and Research in Ruminants and Bees of Sophia Antipolis.

Two other papers, read by Robert Delorme of INRA and Anne Alix, Head of the Ecotoxicology and Environment Unit of the Directorate for Plants and the Environment of Afssa, then addressed the issue of plant protection products and particularly explained the approach used for assessing the risks of each product during the procedure that is applied before marketing authorisation is granted.

After that, Mike Brown, Head of the National Bee Unit at the Food and Environment Research Agency (UK), presented the monitoring system in England & Wales, which is a model in the field. That presentation, which closed the morning, stressed the importance of having reliable and representative field data and confirmed the recommendation by Afssa to create a health monitoring system in France in order to obtain a clear view of the health situation of bee populations in France.

Two presentations then turned to the result of field studies carried out in France and in Belgium in order to identify the determinants of bee mortality in actual conditions. Patrice Carpentier of the Ecotoxicology and Environment Unit at the Directorate for Plants and the Environment of Afssa and Marie-Pierre Chauzat of the Laboratory of Sophia Antipolis detailed the methods and the results of the prospective multifactorial study carried out by Afssa from 2002 to 2005. After that, Eric Haubruge of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Gembloux told the audience about a similar approach in Belgium.

The availability of veterinary medicines and particularly the small range of therapeutic solutions available are a major obstacle for the beekeeping industry. Reviewing the specific position of the honeybee, which is a minor species in view of the small market represented by it, but is also a species that helps produce goods, Laurence Delva of the National Agency for Veterinary Medicine described the regulatory framework that governs the issuing of marketing authorisations for veterinary medicines.

Lastly, Bernard Toma detailed all the recommendations made by Afssa in its report in the area of health monitoring and the organisation of the industry and the relations between farmers and beekeeping and applied research.

The conference was punctuated by free and frank debate, allowing the different parties to put their points of view. On several occasions, some beekeepers' organisations repeated their firm belief that pesticides are the major culprit behind the mortality observed.

A Summary of the papers presented at the conference is available now. The papers and proceedings of the conference will soon be available from the website of the Agency.


For more information

> Summary of the papers (pdf - french)


Conference on the occasion of the submission of the report on "Mortality, Collapse and Weakening of Bee Colonies"
19 June 2009
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