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After all the time, the INSIGNIA-EU team has spent for the preparations, we have reached the moment for celebration of the INSIGNIA-EU pilot study start 2022. 

Today, May 19th until Sunday, May 22 marks the very first phase of the pilot study’s sampling process – the installation period.

Within this time period, a total of 15 participating citizen scientist beekeepers from Austria, Denmark and Greece will install the first matrices. Those will stay in the test hives for two weeks and be sampled within the sampling period of sampling round 1 (SR01).

Austria prepared a short, video guidance for the installation period:  Continue reading “Finally! The INSIGNIA-EU Pilot study has started”

Subscribe our newsletter on what is happening during the 2022-23 at the exciting INSIGNIA project. We will keep you regular updated on our progress, activities, blog and social media. Become aware of our project and follow our pilot project in 2022 (Greece, Denmark and Austria) – where we build on the INSIGNIA-BEE project from 2019-2021 – with heavy metal, microplastic and air pollutants. We evaluate a variety of different solutions. Then in in 2023, the best practice for using honeybees as bio-monitors will become rolled out in all Europe. A very exciting project. Stay tuned and subscribe our newsletter.

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All colonies checked at the five testing sites. Spring explodes in Denmark, with cold nights, but nice sunshine during daytime. Bee really flying. Oilseed rape and apples are in full blossoms and the colonies do explode. We need to be careful with swarming.

Continue reading “Danish INSIGNIA colonies are ready”

We were all very sad to hear of the recent death after a short illness of David G Biron, who was our French partner in the original INSIGNIA project. David worked as a Senior Research Scientist at the Ecology and Environment Institute of CNRS at Clermont-Ferrand, France. He was well known in the field of interactions between hosts, parasites and pollutants in ecosystems. He was the director of the Zone Atelier Territoire Uranifères using and developing remote observation sensors to assess the risks of natural radioactivity enhanced by natural or man-made factors in ecosystems such as springs or a disused uranium mine. He was the manager of the “EcoHealth” working group of the CNRS Zones Ateliers Network. His work on interactions between parasites and their hosts, especially deciphering and understanding host-parasite cross-talk by using “parasito-proteomics” led to the idea of “population proteomics”, a new emerging field in proteomics. He published many scientific papers, on a range of topics and organisms. His work on bees included studies on the gut parasite Nosema ceranae and its interactions with pesticides such as fipronil and thiacloprid. He contributed to the chapter on toxicology in the COLOSS BEEBOOK. Our condolences go out to his family.

Still cold for spring, especially if you are in Greece, but our ‘million dollar’ ladies are working hard for us! Yes indeed, for us! We asked them to show us their ability to collect propolis, even if it cold. Normal temperatures for March I would say, maybe average 13-15 oC. Why propolis? Please, take a look below.

Continue reading “How quickly can propolis be collected?”

Success is in the detail

“The devil is in the detail” is a saying often used to point to unexpected events in a process. In other words, one can say “success is in the detail”.

Welcome to INSIGNIA-EU, an exciting new pan-european citizen scientist study with beekeepers. The Mission statement of the is INSIGNIA -EU study is:  “INSIGNIA-EU will extend the INSIGNIA pilot project (2019-2021) to encompass pan-European environmental pollution bio-monitoring using honey bee colonies. The main pillars are: 1) Robust data, generated by beekeeper citizen scientists via a clear bio-monitoring guideline (protocol), new simple and easy to handle sampling techniques and sample preservation methods, quality controlled sample analyses to low levels and professional data handling; and 2) Modelling of land use – related to environmental (established and emergent) pollutants, pesticide exposure risk for honey bees and pollen diversity.”. Continue reading “INSIGNIA-EU, success is in details”

Propolis is one of the apicultural products used in medicine and cosmetics because of its antimicrobial, antioxidant, antiinflammatory and antitumour properties. Still is one of the bee products, for which very little information is available in terms of its capacity to absorb pollutants from the environment (e.g. heavy metals) or agricultural and veterinary chemicals.

Continue reading “Propolis as a matrix for environmental pollution”

The new project INSIGNIA-EU got underway today with the virtual Kick Off Meeting, which was attended by members of the consortium, representatives of the European Commission Directorate Generals for the Environment and Health and Food Safety, members of the European Parliament, and representatives of several EU agencies including the European Food Safety Authority. Hosted by Vujadin Kovacevic of DG Environment, the meeting was introduced by Martin Hojsik MEP, of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety who outlined the support of the Parliament for this wide ranging environmental study. Continue reading “Kick-Off Meeting for INSIGNIA-EU”

The recently completed INSIGNIA project “Environmental monitoring of pesticide use through honey bees” was designated as a “pilot project” with the primary aim of producing a tried and tested Guideline which could then be used as part of a much larger monitoring project covering the entire European Union. Continue reading “Farewell to INSIGNIA – Welcome to INSIGNIA-EU!”