Pollinator or Transmitter?

 

This experiment is about how glyphosate affects honeybees’ microorganisms in their bodies. In this experiment, foods with glyphosate were given to honeybees. As a result, depending on the concentration of glyphosate in foods, microorganisms in their bodies were affected accordingly. Glyphosate did not seemingly affect hives for its exposure, but honeybees living in hives with glyphosate detection had higher fatality than honeybees living in hives with no glyphosate detection. In addition, glyphosate was found in honey from glyphosate detected hives, which means “worker bees transfer xenobiotics to the hive”. To sum up, glyphosate affects honeybees’ health such as microorganisms in their bodies and higher fatality. Although glyphosate does not aim for influencing honeybees, they are exposed directly and indirectly by eating exposed food and being transferred via exposed hives.

As a pollinator, honeybees carry foods here and there. Reversely, they also can be transmitters of glyphosate to other organisms. By understanding the effects on honeybees from glyphosate, it would be helpful to figure out the degree or range of glyphosate spread to non-targeted organisms.

Motta, E., Mak, M., De Jong, T. K., Powell, J. E., O'Donnell, A., Suhr, K. J., Riddington, I.

M., & Moran, N. A. (2020). Oral or Topical Exposure to Glyphosate in Herbicide Formulation Impacts the Gut Microbiota and Survival Rates of Honey Bees. Applied and environmental microbiology, 86(18), e01150-20. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01150-20

Raymann, K., & Moran, N. A. (2018). The role of the gut microbiome in health and disease of adult honey bee workers. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 26, 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2018.02.012