Tier 1 Honey Bee studies required by EPA include older tests (acute oral, acute contact, foliage test) and newer tests (larval acute, larval chronic, and adult chronic). New tests were necessary to better understand how chemicals may affect bees in earlier stages of development (larvae and pupae) and how adult bees are affected by longer dietary exposure periods. The new tests have been challenging because handling and transfer of bees is much more demanding and requires new techniques and greater skill. For example, larval tests require the transfer of eggs from a frame out of a hive into well plates for the conduct of the test, while adult chronic tests require collecting newly emerged adults from a frame and transferring them to cages. Another challenge is confirmation of test concentrations in diets. This requires an understanding of the stability and homogeneity of the test material in the diet in order to maintain test concentrations in the test. The larval diet is difficult since it is a mixture of royal jelly, yeast, 2 sugars, and water that forms a viscous paste. The adult diet is sugar water and has limitations based on the solubility of the test material. As in most ecotox testing, it is the quality of the animals in cultures that determine the success of the test. Extensive hive management is necessary to produce strong queens, good egg laying and healthy hives. This is essential to achieve healthy test animals, good control survival and lower variability in tests.

Overcoming the challanges of Tier 1 guideline studies for pollinators

254th National Meeting (2017)

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