Comparison of control and toxic reference data between honeybee laboratory studies conducted in Germany and in Spain over the last decade

The Draft EFSA Bee Guidance Document (2013) describes various types of bee studies to be part of the risk assessment. Eurofins Agroscience Services (EAS) has been conducting acute toxicity and chronic feeding studies with adult bees over the last decade and larval acute and chronic studies over the last 5 years in Germany and in Spain. The studies are conducted with different subspecies and in different times of the year in the two countries. The aim of the comparison is to find out if season and geographical origin of the bees have any influence on the test outcome, i.e. control/solvent control mortality and reference item 24 h LD50 range with controls and toxic reference data collected over multiple years. The results give an indication how relevant the testing of different subspecies is for the registration of plant protection products in Europe.