Review of Bee Health

EFSA publishes bee research inventory

December 5, 2012

Editor’s Note:  US officials will not be able to make use of any European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) research unless that research complies with the requirements of the Data Quality Act and its implementing guidance including OMB’s Peer Review bulletin.  For more information about the need for international organizations to comply with US Data Quality standards in order to be considered by federal authorities, see CRE’s Request for Correction of a WHO report here and HHS’ subsequent response to WHO here.

 

From: Association of Corporate Counsel/Lexology

 

Mark Anstoetter and Madeleine McDonough, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP

 

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published an inventory of its activities on bees and bee health as part of a forthcoming report to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. Spurred by a worldwide decline in the bee population, the agency created a task force with expertise in pesticides, animal health and welfare, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and plant health “to provide risk managers with comprehensive advice in the area of bee health.”

 

In compiling the inventory, the task force identified 355 bee-related scientific outputs that EFSA has already published or developed, with the majority of these outputs involving applications for regulatory products such as pesticides and GMOs. “With its mandate to improve EU food safety and to ensure a high level of consumer protection, EFSA has a responsibility to protect bees and the ecosystem services they provide to humans,” stated the agency in a November 20, 2012, news release. “It is timely to carry out this work in a more integrated and multidisciplinary manner, given the significant work already carried out by the Authority in the area of bee risk assessment and monitoring; the consensus reached by scientists on the multiple causes of bee colony loss; and the new body of scientific evidence showing the way different factors may interact to affect bees.”