Pesticide Pollution Provokes Histopathological Alterations in Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758) Drone Gonads

Stoyanova, Stela and Georgieva, Elenka and Petrov, Plamen and Yancheva, Vesela and Antal, László and Somogyi, Dóra and Nyeste, Krisztián József and Ivanova, Evgeniya N. (2025) Pesticide Pollution Provokes Histopathological Alterations in Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758) Drone Gonads. ENVIRONMENTS, 12 (6). No. 173. ISSN 2076-3298

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Abstract

Honey bees are one of the most significant pollinators and contribute to thepollination of various crops. The honey bee,Apis mellifera(Linnaeus, 1758), has uniquecharacteristics that could be successfully used to improve biomonitoring approaches inassessing environmental interactions. Three apiaries with different rates of honey beecolony losses were included in the study—Dimovtsi, Plovdiv, and Krasnovo, Bulgaria.Male individuals (immature and mature) were collected from five colonies for each ofthe three apiaries and studied for histopathological changes in the gonads. The resultsconcerning the rate of honey bee colony losses in the studied apiaries from 2022 and2023 showed honey bee losses in the tested colonies due to queen problems, which werereported for Plovdiv, as well as the death of honey bees or a reduction in their number to afew hundred bees in the colony. The chemical analysis showed the presence of differentorganic substances, such as Coumaphos, DEET (N, N-diethyl-M-toluamide), Fluvalinate,and Piperonyl-butoxide, in the alive and dead honey bee samples and those of food stocks(wax, pollen, and honey) within the hives. Among the sample types, those of the deadhoney bees contained the greatest variety of pesticide residues, particularly in Plovdivand Dimovtsi, reinforcing the link between pesticide exposure and honey bee mortality.The histopathological alterations were mainly associated with the thinning of the coveringepithelium of the seminiferous tubules and the detachment of the basement membrane ofthe seminiferous tubules. The more severe histopathological lesion, necrosis, was observedin a higher degree of expression in the drones from Plovdiv, indicating a higher pollutionlevel in this region.

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