Glyphosate is among the most used pesticides in the world and has been identified as one of the pesticides of greatest concern in terms of sublethal effects on bees (Tosi, Sfeir, Carnesecchi, VanEngelsdorp & Chauzat, 2022). In light of that, a new PoshBee study was specifically interested in advancing the assessment of beebread’s contamination with residues of glyphosate, since beebreads represent a possible source of long-term exposure of bees to glyphosate and only a few studies on this topic have been published to date.

Honeybees.

Thus, in the newly published Method of Glyphosate, AMPA, and Glufosinate Ammonium Determination in Beebread by Liquid Chromatography—Tandem Mass Spectrometry after Molecularly Imprinted Solid-Phase Extraction, PoshBee researchers from the National Veterinary Research Institute of Poland (PIWET) set out to develop a method for the determination of glyphosate, its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and glufosinate ammonium residues in beebread samples, which could then be used to assess bees’ exposure to their residues. The paper thoroughly describes the method development, validation and verification, as well as the materials and methods used in the process.

Each step of the method has been carefully optimised to enable the most sensitive and reliable analysis of glyphosate, AMPA, and glufosinate ammonium residues in beebread. And to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this would be the first fully optimised, validated, and verified method of glyphosate determination in beebread. This method could be a reliable tool for the assessment of beebread’s contamination with residues of glyphosate and its further use in practice could provide highly reliable data on the exposure of bees to glyphosate residues.

Read the full paper here.

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Tosi, S., Sfeir, C., Carnesecchi, E., VanEngelsdorp, D., & Chauzat, M.-P. (2022). Lethal, Sublethal, and Combined Effects of Pesticides on Bees: A Meta-Analysis and New Risk Assessment Tools. Sci. Total Environ, 844, 156857