Oxidative Stress as a Simple Tool to Measure Environmental Pollution Impact on Honeybee

• DOI: 10.20944/preprints202310.0295.v1
• Publication Date: 2023-10-13T02:40:30Z
• Authors: Precillia Cochard; Benjamin POIROT; Martin BARAIBAR; Andrea CAVAGNINO
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 11. Sustainability

Bees have long been used as a bioindicator of environmental quality. They have the capacity to bio-accumulate various pollutants in cities such as PAHs and heavy metals, but they are also very sensitive to other pollutants in rural areas such as pesticides. The lethal and sub-lethal impacts of pesticides on bees have been extensively studied. However, studies often focus on a single molecule at a same time and rarely on a cocktail of pesticides. The oxidant stress in response to metals and NOx was also measure, but no studies were engaged on the impact of PAHs on honeybees. The aim of this study was to measure the oxidative stress in bees in response to the chronic ingestion of a mixture of pesticides (representative of pollutants in rural areas) on the first hand and a mixture of PAHs (representative of pollutants in urban areas) on the other hand, compared to a control group. We also wanted to determine whether this tool is effective in detecting environmental measures aimed at reducing pollution in urban and rural areas.