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The Ministry of Water, Agriculture and the Environment is carrying out an investigation to know the origin of the mortality of bees in an apiary located in the hamlet of Cañada de Gallego, in the municipality of Mazarrón.
This investigation has been initiated as a result of a complaint made by a number of beekeepers affected in the area before the Service of Nature Protection (Seprona).
Technicians from the Animal Health and Plant Protection services of the Ministry have begun a series of joint actions to carry out the investigations.
According to reports from affected beekeepers, the death of bees could have been caused by intoxication from pesticide residues originating from the phytosanitary treatment of an early fruit orchard.
Phytosanitary treatment at the beginning of flowering in fruit trees for the control of thrips is a permitted practice for some registered plant protection products which must be applied with certain precautions to avoid affecting pollinators in general and in particular bees.
In 2016, the Plant Health Service carried out a specific program of flowering inspections to know the incidence of the use of phytosanitaries in the specific problems of mortality of bees that appear every year at this time.
In that year a total of 25 inspections were carried out.
This program is in addition to the Surveillance Plan for the Use of Phytosanitary Products that is being developed on an ongoing basis, which has so far carried out a total of 250 inspections on farmers.
Samples analyzed
These plans have contributed to show that 98 of the analyzed samples meet the rules on the use of plant protection products.
This is a high percentage, which corresponds to the professionalism of the sector and the integrated pest control policies in the Region of Murcia.
As for the samples taken in flowering, all the pesticides detected were products authorized for this use, with the exception of a holding where the use of a pesticide of the neonicotinoid type was detected, and which resulted in the initiation of a sanctioning file.
The analyzes are carried out in the Agrifood and Animal Health Laboratory of the Ministry.
It is an accredited center for the determination of pesticide residues following the guidelines of European and national reference laboratories.
In addition, in 2014, the Ministry designed a guide to good agricultural practices, with a series of measures to be exercised both for farmers and beekeepers, in order to avoid specific cases of intoxication of bees by phytosanitary treatments.
Source: CARM
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