| Title: | Exposure to multiple cholinergic pesticides impairs olfactory learning and memory in honeybees |
| Author(s): | Williamson SM; Wright GA; |
| Address: | "Institute of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1477-9145 (Electronic) 0022-0949 (Print) 0022-0949 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Pesticides are important agricultural tools often used in combination to avoid resistance in target pest species, but there is growing concern that their widespread use contributes to the decline of pollinator populations. Pollinators perform sophisticated behaviours while foraging that require them to learn and remember floral traits associated with food, but we know relatively little about the way that combined exposure to multiple pesticides affects neural function and behaviour. The experiments reported here show that prolonged exposure to field-realistic concentrations of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid and the organophosphate acetylcholinesterase inhibitor coumaphos and their combination impairs olfactory learning and memory formation in the honeybee. Using a method for classical conditioning of proboscis extension, honeybees were trained in either a massed or spaced conditioning protocol to examine how these pesticides affected performance during learning and short- and long-term memory tasks. We found that bees exposed to imidacloprid, coumaphos, or a combination of these compounds, were less likely to express conditioned proboscis extension towards an odor associated with reward. Bees exposed to imidacloprid were less likely to form a long-term memory, whereas bees exposed to coumaphos were only less likely to respond during the short-term memory test after massed conditioning. Imidacloprid, coumaphos and a combination of the two compounds impaired the bees' ability to differentiate the conditioned odour from a novel odour during the memory test. Our results demonstrate that exposure to sublethal doses of combined cholinergic pesticides significantly impairs important behaviours involved in foraging, implying that pollinator population decline could be the result of a failure of neural function of bees exposed to pesticides in agricultural landscapes" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Bees/drug effects/*physiology Cholinesterase Inhibitors/*toxicity Conditioning, Psychological/drug effects Coumaphos/toxicity Discrimination, Psychological/drug effects *Environmental Exposure Feeding Behavior/drug effects *Honey Imidazoles/toxici;neuroscience;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineWilliamson, Sally M Wright, Geraldine A eng Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2013/02/09 J Exp Biol. 2013 May 15; 216(Pt 10):1799-807. doi: 10.1242/jeb.083931. Epub 2013 Feb 7" |
