The study of 32,000 bee colonies across 17 EU member states from
late 2012 until summer 2013 found winter mortality rates ranged from
3.5 percent to 33.6 percent.
The winter of 2012-13 was particularly cold and the highest
mortality rates were in northern countries with harsher climates.
During the beekeeping season, when the insects are active, mortality
rates were between 0.3 percent and 13.6 percent.
"It's the first major study of pests and diseases that affect
honeybees. A lot of it seems very encouraging," said Tom Breeze, a
specialist in bees at the University of Reading in Britain said.
Breeze was not involved in the study, which was made public by the
European Commission on Monday.
By comparison, U.S. beekeepers lost nearly a third of their colonies
last winter as part of a largely unexplained decline in the
population that could affect food supplies.
The study found that overall prevalence of the bee diseases American
foulbrood was low in all the monitored EU member states, ranging
from zero to 11.6 percent.
European foulbrood was even lower. Only five member states observed
positive cases and the clinical prevalence exceeded 2 percent in
only one member state.
Varroosis, a disease caused by a mite, was however observed in
nearly all the monitored member states.
The survey was financed by the 17 out of 28 EU member states which
took part and by the European Commission, which contributed 3.3
million euros ($4.5 million). It said the study would be followed up
with further research.
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Environmental campaigning group Greenpeace welcomed the study as far
as it went, while saying that it left out analysis of the impact of
pesticides and changes to biodiversity.
"This is the first year in which some sort of monitoring has
started. Finally it's a first step in the right direction,"
Greenpeace's EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said.
Last week, the Red List of the International Union for Conservation
of Nature found that almost a quarter of Europe's wild bee
population is at risk of extinction because of loss of habitats and
The Commission, the EU executive, also said current indicators
showed wild bees, closely related to the honeybees and also vital
pollinators, were in "a worrying decline".
It has banned the use of certain pesticides, known as
neonicotinoids, suspected of harming bees. They are produced mainly
by Germany's Bayer and Switzerland's Syngenta.
In addition, EU policymakers are trying to address bee health by
insisting on measures such as crop diversification as part of
reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy.
(Editing by Anthony Barker)
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