When applied to canola, neonicotinoid seed treatments are not a threat to bees, says a Saskatchewan Agriculture assistant deputy minister.
Speaking this week before a Senate committee studying bee health, Janice Tranberg said varroa mites and viruses are the greatest menace to honeybees.
Neonicotinoid seed treatments, which are applied to nearly every canola seed planted in Western Canada, are a tertiary concern, Tranberg said.
“Effectively, all bee colonies in Saskatchewan are within flight range of at least one canola field. Despite this high exposure rate, there have been no reported incidences of seed treatments affecting honeybees in Saskatchewan,” she said to the standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry Sept. 23.
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“This indicates that bees and seed treated canola can thrive together.
Tranberg’s position is at odds with beekeepers in Ontario. Earlier in September, two Ontario honey producers filed a $450 million class action suit against Syngenta and Bayer Crop Science, the makers of neonicotinoids.
The apiarists claim neonicotinoids, which are applied as seed treatments to the majority of corn, canola and soybean crops in North America, have caused bee deaths, impaired reproduction, hive losses, reduced honey production, dead queen bees and altered honey quality.
In the face of repeated questions from senators, asking how neonics are killing bees and endangering bee colony health in Canada, Tranberg said Saskatchewan’s beekeeping industry is actually expanding.
“(It) has grown from 85,000 colonies in 2010 to over 100,000 colonies in 2013. It produces approximately $40 million of honey each year. The value of pollination is estimated at nearly 10 times the value of honey.”
Tranberg said seed treatments are a necessary component of canola production.
“Neonicotinoid treatments are used to protect canola from flea beetles. In Saskatchewan alone, this crop had an estimated value of $3 billion in 2014,” she said. “There are limited other viable options to protect canola from flea beetles, so, without the protection of seed treatments, much production and profitability for canola producers would be lost.”
Manitoba provincial apiarist Rheal Lafreniere, who also spoke to the Senate committee, said Manitoba beekeepers worry about weather and disease.
Since 2007, over-winter colony losses have averaged 26 percent in Manitoba, above historical averages of 15 to 25 percent. Lafreniere said changes in weather patterns have contributed to the increase in winter losses.
“When we asked beekeepers what they consider to be the primary factors for the high losses, the number one reported answer was weather related, followed closely by problems with queens,” he said, adding cool spring weather has exacerbated colony losses.
“If there has been a trend that we’re starting to see, it is that in addition to perhaps higher losses over the wintering period, the (hive) recovery in the spring has been very much a challenge.”
Lafreniere said neonicotinoids likely place additional stress on weakened hives, but Manitoba beekeepers rarely attribute bee deaths to neonics.
“Over the last three years, one year there were five (reports). The following year, there were four, and this year there have only been three. In some of them, the incident was reported as a loss, but the direct link to the seed treatment was not made.”
Paul van Westendorp, provincial apiarist in British Columbia, said an outright ban of neonicotinoids, as is being suggested in Ontario, could have consequences for bee health.
“In that case, they (growers) are likely to be resorting to the organochlorines, the organophosphates, the carbamates and all those hideous hard chemicals that we were all so delighted to see disappear.”
Van Westendorp said policy makers should focus on the overuse of neonics because many farmers plant seed coated with the insecticide, whether it’s needed or not.
“There are indicators in Canada that in some crops, such as soybeans and canola, where the need for the application of neonicotinoids is totally unwarranted, but for convenience and for extra insurance, you might say, for the farmer, it is applied automatically,” he said.
“It is folly for society, if you will, certainly for regulators, to condone that kind of release and incessant use of these kinds of chemicals.”
