Making way for the implementation of automated bee counters in regulatory risk assessment
Advancing bee health monitoring. Honey bees are key pollinators for agriculture and ecosystem health. However, their populations face numerous threats, including exposure to pesticides. To effectively mitigate these risks, regulators such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have introduced a multi-stage approach to assess the impact of pesticides on bees. However, accurately measuring key parameters such as background mortality and sub-lethal effects is a major challenge.
How can automated bee counters improve bee health monitoring? Automated bee counters offer the ability to continuously track bee populations, providing valuable insights into colony health and behavior. These counters utilize advanced technologies such as capacitive sensors and video-based detection systems. By automating the monitoring process, these tools overcome the limitations associated with traditional methods such as dead bee traps.
Bienenflug währen Fungizidapplikation im Raps wird von BeeChecks aufgezeichnet.
What are the challenges and opportunities associated with automated bee counters? While automated bee counters are promising, they also face challenges such as ensuring accuracy, minimizing disruption to bee behavior and overcoming technical limitations. However, recent advances suggest that automated counters could revolutionize bee health monitoring by providing real-time data on bee populations and behavior.
How do automatic bee counters contribute to risk assessment? The integration of automatic bee counters into regulatory risk assessment processes holds immense potential. By providing real-time data on bee populations and behavior, these tools can improve the accuracy and reliability of pesticide risk assessments. They also provide insights into broader environmental factors, facilitating proactive measures to protect bee populations and ecosystem health.
Looking to the future: the future of bee health monitoring. As research in this field continues to evolve, we expect to see further innovations in automated bee monitoring technology. With ongoing support from regulators and scientific communities, these advances promise a more sustainable future for bee populations and agricultural ecosystems.
Conclusion: Using technology for bee conservation. Automated bee counters represent a significant advance in bee health monitoring and have the potential to transform pesticide risk assessment and environmental management practices. By leveraging technology, we can gain deeper insights into the complex interactions between pesticides, bee behavior and ecosystem health, ultimately making way for more effective conservation strategies.
@article{nokey,
title = {Making way for the implementation of automated bee counters in regulatory risk assessment},
author = {Richard Odemer and Oliver Jakoby and Markus Barth and Silvio Knäbe and Jens Pistorius and Katharina Schmidt},
url = {http://vibee-project.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/VIBEE_Odemer_Perspective_BeeCounter_RiskAssessment_2024.pdf},
doi = {10.1111/jen.13256},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-04-03},
urldate = {2024-04-03},
journal = {Journal of Applied Entomology},
abstract = {Measuring adverse effects on honey bees and their colonies requires a suitable methodology. For example, due to the large number of bees in a hive and the foraging activity, measuring the mortality of individuals is a difficult task that has not yet been adequately addressed. Knowing the natural daily mortality rate of a bee colony would be of great benefit in assessing whether and to what extent external influences and stress factors affect mortality. More precise mortality data could in turn help refining specific protection goals for regulatory purpose. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently published a document that estimated such mortality rates based on a systematic literature review, but none of these rates were assessed from continuous monitoring of colonies. Currently, bee mortality is routinely evaluated with various types of dead bee traps that prevent deceased bees from being removed from the colony. Both the literature review and the dead bee traps are relevant to regulatory risk assessment, but in our opinion are not describing the total mortality. Bee counters capable of precisely determining daily loss rates meet the above points and combine them with generating automated and continuous monitoring data. Lately, the field has gained a lot of importance in research and technological advances offer new possibilities in regulatory risk assessment. We will highlight these possibilities and discuss their future application in practice.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Measuring adverse effects on honey bees and their colonies requires a suitable methodology. For example, due to the large number of bees in a hive and the foraging activity, measuring the mortality of individuals is a difficult task that has not yet been adequately addressed. Knowing the natural daily mortality rate of a bee colony would be of great benefit in assessing whether and to what extent external influences and stress factors affect mortality. More precise mortality data could in turn help refining specific protection goals for regulatory purpose. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently published a document that estimated such mortality rates based on a systematic literature review, but none of these rates were assessed from continuous monitoring of colonies. Currently, bee mortality is routinely evaluated with various types of dead bee traps that prevent deceased bees from being removed from the colony. Both the literature review and the dead bee traps are relevant to regulatory risk assessment, but in our opinion are not describing the total mortality. Bee counters capable of precisely determining daily loss rates meet the above points and combine them with generating automated and continuous monitoring data. Lately, the field has gained a lot of importance in research and technological advances offer new possibilities in regulatory risk assessment. We will highlight these possibilities and discuss their future application in practice.
