| PARIS, Oct 26 (Reuters) - European chemicals giant Aventis (NYSE:AVE
- news) on Thursday denied any link between its pesticide Regent and a
mystery illness which has devastated the bee population in parts of
France.
Aventis CropScience France, the company's French agricultural unit,
said in a statement that Regent did not belong to the category of
so-called systemic pesticides which honey makers blame for intoxicating
bees, causing scores to die.
Systemic pesticides are spread via the sap into the plant.
Protests by beekeepers have targeted mainly Gaucho, a pesticide made by
Bayer AG , but have also called Regent into question.
Both products are used to coat seeds and both are designed to protect
sunseed crops against insects, but Aventis said its product functioned in
a different manner from systemic pesticides.
``Regent TS has none of the characteristics questioned by beekeepers.
Regent TS is a non-systemic insecticide. This property means that in no
event is it carried via the sap into the upper areas of the plant,'' the
company said.
``The fact is that these characteristics allow no contact between the
bee and the product,'' it added.
The Farm Ministry, responding to concerns about so-called ``mad bee
disease'', in January 1999 suspended use of Bayer's Gaucho pesticide on
sunseeds as a precautionary measure.
But beekeepers said the measure was insufficient, as studies found that
Gaucho left a residue which meant that even after two years, plants sown
on the same spot as the crop originally treated contained traces of the
product.
They are demanding the ban be extended to wheat, barley, maize and
sugar beet crops which are currently treated with systemic pesticides,
mainly to protect them against greenflies.
Bayer has confirmed that Gaucho leaves a small residue in nectar and
pollen, but said there was no evidence of any link between Gaucho and the
drop in bee population affecting mainly central and eastern France.
The National Union of French Beekeepers (UNAF) said French honey
production fell to around 25,000 tonnes in 1999 from 35,000 tonnes before
systemic pesticides were introduced in the early 1990s. The number of
hives has plummeted to one million from 1.45 million in 1996. |