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Ying-Hong Li [1] and Bei-Lei Zhou [2] and Ming-Rong Qian [2] and Qiang Wang [2] and Hu Zhang [2]

Academic Editor: Josep Esteve-Romero

1, Zhejiang Institute for Food and Drug Control, Hangzhou 310052, China, zjyj.org.cn

2, Institute of Quality and Standard for Agricultural Products, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China, zaas.ac.cn

Received Jun 5, 2017; Accepted Jul 25, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

Bees are important natural pollinators not only for crops but also for wild flowers and plants in natural ecosystems [1, 2]. The widespread use of pesticides has caused pollution in bees [3, 4]. As a direct result, bees have become important spreaders of pesticides [5]. Apicultural products extracted from bees such as pollen, honey, and jelly are popular agricultural products worldwide. The quality of apicultural products is dependent on whether forage plants are contaminated by pesticides. In China, rape is widely planted in the Yangtze River Basin due to the high nutritional and economic value of rapeseed. In addition, rape is the main nectar source for bees in the region. However, rape is susceptible to insect pests especially fungal diseases during its entire growth period, which can significantly impact yield [6]. While spraying with insecticides and fungicides protects the crop [7], it conversely leads to the contamination of apicultural products. A wide range of neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides have been detected in pollen produced by bees fluttering among oilseed rape and wild flowers nearby and reveal the serious consequences of simultaneous exposure of bees to complex mixtures of pesticides [8]. Chinese annual output and exports of apicultural products have ranked first in the world for many years. Several countries, such as the European Union and Japan, have raised technical trade barriers on exports of Chinese apicultural products due to the high levels of chemical pesticide residues [9]. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out studies on the transfer and metabolism of pesticide residues from forage plants to apicultural products.

Pesticide residues in apicultural products have been researched for many years. The multiresidue method for the determination of pesticides and pesticide...

 

 

 

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