Risk assessment for bees - Eurofins Agroscience Regulatory develops a new user-friendly calculator

Risk assessment for bees according to Japanese requirements is quite different from the assessment conducted according to the European ones. It is a step-wise process, starting first with a checking of the conditions where this assessment is actually required. For instance, in Japan, label indications such as “do not apply during flowering” will allow waiver of any testing and assessment, although in Europe, such a mitigation measure would be applied only after conducting toxicity studies followed by a full risk assessment.

Under Japanese regulation, the next steps are then represented by the contact toxicity, followed by the acute oral risk assessment for adults and larvae, and eventually the chronic risk assessment to both stages. The assessment may stop at any of those stages, based on specific triggers. Three exposure patterns are considered for the assessment and the exposure is estimated through modelled nectar and pollen residues and consumption, but measured residue values may be used to refine the assessment where necessary.

Eurofins Agroscience Regulatory has developed a calculator enabling the user to conduct a risk assessment for bees according to the “Guideline for assessing the effects of pesticides on honeybees” from MAFF, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. This user-friendly calculator considers all the steps of the risk assessment for bees provided in the guideline and calculates the pollen and nectar residues according to the relevant exposure pattern. It clearly indicates whether the risk assessment needs to go to the next step, and whether the risk to bees is acceptable or not, with no need to go back to the guidance. Moreover, it allows the assessment to be refined by easily introducing measured data for pollen and/or nectar residues instead of the modelled data.

Interested in getting more detailed information? Do not hesitate to reach out to our Senior Ecotoxicologist Sylviane Gony