Assessing Effects Through Laboratory Toxicity Testing

This chapter provides an overview of existing toxicity tests and their strengths and weaknesses, and discusses proposed modifications to existing studies, or additional studies that could address limitations in the current battery of studies. In the European Union (EU), regulatory authorities may require a bee brood feeding test to assess potential hazard of a pesticide on honey bee larvae. The chapter reports toxicity testing with some species of adult non-Apis bees with some frequency. It discusses some of the methods that have been developed to measure the potential sublethal effects of pesticides on honey bees. Laboratory toxicity tests are currently available for evaluating the potential effects of chemicals on bees. Laboratory-based studies will likely continue to focus on individual test organisms; and, although laboratory-based toxicity testing has historically focused on mortality, tests are evolving to provide insight on sublethal effects such as impaired behavior.