Free Access
Issue
Apidologie
Volume 31, Number 4, July-August 2000
Page(s) 531 - 541
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2000144
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2000144

Apidologie 31 (2000) 531-541

Residues of captan (contact) and difenoconazole (systemic) fungicides in bee products from an apple orchard

Marek Kubika - Janusz Nowackia - Andrzej Pideka - Zofia Warakomskab - Lech Michalczuka - W\lodzimierz Goszczyñskia - Beata Dwuzpnika

aInstitute of Pomology and Floriculture, 96-100 Skierniewice, Pomologiczna 18, Poland
bUniversity of Agriculture, Department of Botany, 20-950 Lublin, Poland

(Received 12 July 1999; revised 11 February 2000; accepted 15 March 2000)

Abstract:

Ten bee colonies were placed in the middle of a ten-hectare-apple orchard at about 10% in bloom. The orchard was sprayed with a mixture of a contact fungicide, Captan 50WP (active ingredient captan) and a systemic fungicide, Score 250 EC (active ingredient difenoconazole). The residues of fungicides in honey, pollen, and bee bread were then measured by gas chromatography. Honey had very low contamination - 0.0006 mg.kg-1 of difenoconazole and 0.009 mg.kg-1 of captan. Contamination of pollen was much higher - about 0.043 and 2.99 mg.kg-1 of difenoconazole and captan, respectively. The most contaminated was bee bread, 0.27 and 6.39 mg.kg-1 of difenoconazole and captan, respectively. This finding may be due to some chemical reactions between difenoconazole and some plant metabolites taking place in pollen and bee bread. Difenoconazole, a systemic fungicide, penetrates about 1.66 and 1.16 times more efficiently into honey and bee bread, respectively, than the contact fungicide captan. But in pollen pellets from apple, the penetration coefficient was lower than 1. This observation corroborates the suggestion that in fresh pollen some fungicides may be fixed by sugars, aminoacids, or even proteins.


Keywords: honey / pollen / contamination / systemic fungicide / contact fungicide

Correspondence and reprints: Marek Kubik
E-mail: mkubik@insad.isk.skierniewice.pl

Copyright INRA/DIB/AGIB/EDP Sciences