Analysis of Bee Population Decline in Lombardy during the Period 2014-2016 and Identification of High-Risk Areas.

Veronica Cappa,Alessandra Scaburri,Marco Tironi,Silvia Bellini,Monica Pierangela Cerioli,Marco Farioli,Claudia Nassuato

doi:10.3390/pathogens10081004

Abstract

The first events of bee decline in Italy were reported during 1999. Since then, population decline has frequently been reported in Lombardy. In this study, the association between bee decline and the type of land surrounding the apiary was evaluated. A risk map was developed to identify areas with the highest risk of decline. Apiaries in Lombardy were selected from the national beekeeping database (BDA). The study period was from 2014 to 2016. Apiaries were deemed “declined” if they reported at least one event of decline or tested positive for plant protection products; apiaries were “not declined” if they did not report any events of bee decline during the study period. Out of 14,188 apiaries extracted from the BDA, 80 were considered declined. The probability of an apiary being declined increases by 10% in orchards and by 2% in arable land for each additional km2 of land occupied by these crops. The study showed an association between bee decline and the type of territory surrounding the apiaries, and the areas at the greatest risk of decline in Lombardy were identified. This information can be used by Veterinary Services as a predictive parameter for planning prevention and control activities.

Highlights

It has been amply demonstrated that the treatment of arable land, which leads to the dispersion of dust containing insecticide, is among the major contributors to the decline in bee population, supporting data found in other studies [7,9]
This study aimed to quantify the risk of population decline by identifying the type of land surrounding the apiary according to the bee’s flight radius and a statistically significant association emerged between arable land and bee deaths
This study revealed a statistically significant association between bee population decline and arable fields and orchards, and we were able to quantify the risk according to the type of land surrounding the apiary

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), more than. 40% of the invertebrate species that are responsible for pollination, especially bees and butterflies, are at risk of disappearing. In Europe, 9.2% of bee species are currently threatened with extinction [1]. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that of the 100 crops that provide 90% of the world’s food, 71 are pollinated by bees. Pollinators, play a key role in regulating the processes that sustain food production, habitat conservation, and natural resources, and are fundamental to the conservation of biological diversity, the basis of economies, and very existence [2]

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Conclusion