- PARIS, April 9 (UPI) _ The French government today moved to combat
an outbreak of what's being called ``mad bee'' disease, which the scientific
community says is killing millions of honeybees in western France.
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- With half the money coming from the European
Union, the French ministries of agriculture and environment said today
a total $1 million will be spent to find out why the honeybees are dying.
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- A high bee kill was first reported last
summer by beekeepers who said increasing numbers of bees became disorientated
and failed to return to their hives after gathering pollen and nectar from
sunflowers.
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- Beekeepers in the region call the malady
``mad bee'' disease and blame it on a widely used insecticide that the
beekeepers say is destroying the insects' sense of direction.
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- They report the phenomenon has drastically
affected the region's bee population and dramatically reduced production
of area's famed honey by 60 percent.
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- That's more than a third of France's
total output.
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- At issue is what the Ministry of Environment
reports may be the insecticide, Gaucho, produced by the German agrochemical
company Bayer SA. It is used to protect sunflowers from parasites.
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- Ministry spokesman Andre Lesireux said
this morning, ``The research will tell us why the bees turn crazy and die.''
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- The beekeepers say only those insects
collecting nectar from sunflowers appear to be affected.
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- The Bayer group has agreed to contribute
5 percent of the total cost of research.
-
- Franck Allaitru of the FDSEA agriculture
union said in Paris today ``A poisoning problem from insecticide is the
only explanation for the behaviour of the bees and their systematic disappearance
during the first week that the sunflowers bloom.''
-
- Regional authorities have already suspended
use of Gaucho in three areas of western and central France - the Vendee,
Indre and Deux-Sevres.
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- The research initiative, reported earlier
in the newspaper Ouest- France, will determine if the bees in those areas
recover.
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- But the French Green Party has demanded
the product be removed entirely from the market.
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- Gaucho first went on sale in 1994.
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- The producer says Gaucho is based on
imidaclopride, a chemical which acts on the nervous systems of a wide variety
of pests, including wireworm and aphids.
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- Bayer SA defends the product as the most
widely used sunflower insecticide in France and insists ``the accusations
have no scientific foundation.''
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- Bayer SA French marketing director Bruno
Feldrops says imidaclopride has been used in more than 70 countries and
was subjected to rigorous testing.
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