Exposure to multiple cholinergic pesticides impairs olfactory learning and memory in honeybees.

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 cond

SUBMITTER: Williamson SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3641805 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature