A common pesticide additive, known as an “inert” ingredient, could be one of the causes of the die-offs beekeepers have observed in their hives. Christopher Intagliata reports.
一种常见的农药添加剂可以使害虫失去行动能力，它也许也致使人工养蜂接连死亡。克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔报道。
撰文/播音：克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔（Christopher Intagliata）
翻译：郭鑫鹏
审校：丁可含
Springtime is flower season. And that includes some 90 million almond trees in California. It’s the largest pollination event in the U.S.-and beekeepers truck in two thirds of the nation’s captive honeybees to do the job. But for the last decade or so, the keepers have complained about failing colonies, with underdeveloped bees ejected from their hives.
春天是花的季节。这包括了加利福尼亚州约9千万杏树。这是美国最大的授粉事件——养蜂人用卡车装运整个国家约三分之二被饲养的蜜蜂来做这项工作。但是近十年，养蜂人们抱怨蜜蜂数量的减少，包括未发育成熟的蜜蜂被驱逐出它们的蜂巢。
Now a study identifies one possible culprits. Not a pesticide, but one of the many ingredients used alongside them. “So these are added into a formulation to enhance the efficacy of the active ingredients.” Julia Fine, an entomologist at Penn State. “It’s just called “other ingredients” and they often are the bulk of the formulated product.”
现在一项研究指出了一个可能的原因。不是杀虫剂，而是一种添加剂。“所以这些成分加入配方中可以加强有效成分的功效。”宾尼法尼亚州昆虫学家朱莉亚·法恩说。“这仅被称作‘其他成分’，它们通常是制定产品的组成部分。“
The chemical in question is known as an organosilicone surfactant. Fine and her colleagues fed the chemical to honeybee larvae over time, and exposed them to a cocktail of common beehive viruses. And they found that larvae exposed to the chemical and the viruses together appeared to die in greater numbers than did bees exposed to the viruses or the chemical alone-a possible synergistic effect. And the symptoms they saw mirrored the ones beekeepers observed in their hives. The study is in the journal Scientific Reports. [Julia D. Fine et al., An Inert Pesticide Adjuvant Synergizes Viral Pathogenicity and Mortality in Honey Bee Larvae]
有问题的化学成分被称为一种有机硅表面活性剂。法恩和她的同事们把这种化学成分喂给蜜蜂幼虫一段时间，然后把它们暴露在常见的一些蜂巢病毒中。他们发现比起那些只暴露在病毒或化学品中的幼虫，同时暴露在化学物和病毒的幼虫死亡得更多——这是一种可能的协同效应。他们看到的这个现象便与养蜂人在蜂巢看到现象相似。研究发表在期刊《科学报告》上。
Fine and her team still have to determine how much of these chemicals actually make it into the bees’ food. But they do know hundreds of thousands of pounds of them are used in almond orchards each year. And elsewhere. “Agriculture is just one use for organosilicone surfactants. It’s all over the place. So if we can find it has any effect in an organism, it will be relevant.”
法恩和她的团队需要进一步确认进入蜜蜂食物中的添加剂剂量。但是他们知道每年有成千上万磅被使用在了杏树果园中。还有其他一些地方。“农业只是有机硅表面活性剂的应用场所之一。我们到处都能看到它。所以如果我们能够发现它在一个有机体上的作用，这有着重大意义。“
-Christopher Intagliata
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