Honey Bee Fast Response System for Broad Band Detection of Airborne Toxicants.

This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project is to develop a broad band detection system for air toxicity. Our overall objective is to show that honey bee orientation and locomotor behaviors can be used as reliable and measurable indicators of certain airborne toxicants. Locomotor sufficiency and directional orientation are behaviors that should unambiguously indicate toxicant exposure. Nearly all airborne toxicants affect the sensory systems or neuromuscular coordination of honey bees, either through cuticular absorption or inhalation,. Above threshold exposures, neurological and motor impairment should progressively degrade efficiency of movement of bees toward a goal. The resulting application builds upon our proven bee colony real-time monitoring and data delivery system. The proposed project introduces new features to: (1) demonstrate that honey bee orientation and movement at the hive exhibit unique responses upon exposure to airborne toxicants, (2) quantify dose-response relationships to the tested toxicant, (3) determine lower threshold concentrations for measurable response; (4) determine whether other environmental perturbations could elicit a similar behavioral response, and (4) demonstrate that a bee colony will display measurable responses across a range of exposures in less than 30 minutes, over a two week demonstration period. These studies will facilitate construction of semi-quantitative response profiles for a hazard evaluation system, and for benchmarking bee responses to existing human exposure risk data, resulting in a report on the efficacy of using bee behaviors to monitor health hazards from airborne toxicants, as well as a plan for a hive-mounted device that can be incorporated into our existing real-time monitoring/reporting systems, leading to Phase II application, and Phase III activities and self-sufficiency.