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Bayer, the company that makes Roundup, has rejected a study carried out linking the decline of honey bee health and glyphosate.
The study called Glyphosate perturbs the gut microbiota of honey bees asserts: “Exposing bees to glyphosate alters the bee gut community and increases susceptibility to infection by opportunistic pathogens.”
However, Bayer has insisted that the study is small-scale and does not meet widely accepted standards for research.
“The paper does not provide any evidence that the purported effects could have a negative impact on bee health under realistic field conditions,” the company said in a statement.
“At the same time, this research team did not discuss these new findings in light of their previous work, according to which antibiotics that beekeepers use in their hives are the cause of altered gut microbe communities in honey bees.
“Furthermore, the paper relied on a relatively small number of individual bees which were tested.”
Glyphosate is a widely used active ingredients in pesticides across Europe and debates continue over its safety.
It won a five-year licensing renewal last year but the French government still intends to introduce a phase-out plan for active ingredient.
Some 1.3m people in Europe signed a petition last year calling for the licence not to be renewed.
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