From abstract: or over 20 years, the UK Agriculture Departments have monitored the direct effects of pesticides on beneficial insects, mainly honeybees (Apis mellifera, L.) and bumblebees (Bombus terrestris, L.), as part of the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS). The Central Science Laboratory (CSL) has contributed to WIIS by providing the required laboratory skills for the determination of bee diseases and the expert analytical experience necessary to determine low-level pesticide residues and interpret these results. The results from WIIS form part of the pesticide regulatory process coordinated by the Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) and are published each year. This paper has reviewed the data from WIIS over the 10 year period from 1994 to 2003. The overall trend is that suspected poisoning incidents, reported by beekeepers and the general public, have declined from 56 incidents per year to 23 incidents per year. The number of these incidents that have been attributed to pesticide poisoning has also declined, from 25 incidents to five incidents per year. The possible reasons for these changes and the circumstances involved in the bee poisoning incidents are discussed. However, the source of the pesticide in bee poisoning incidents is often uncertain and the likely cause of these incidents and any trends over time are also discussed.

From abstract (free full-text available): Epidemiologists are adopting new remote sensing techniques to study a variety of vector-borne diseases. Associations between satellite-derived environmental variables such as temperature, humidity, and land cover type and vector density are used to identify and characterize vector habitats. The convergence of factors such as the availability of multi-temporal satellite data and georeferenced epidemiological data, collaboration between remote sensing scientists and biologists, and the availability of sophisticated, statistical geographic information system and image processing algorithms in a desktop environment creates a fertile research environment. The use of remote sensing techniques to map vector-borne diseases has evolved significantly over the past 25 years. In this paper, we review the status of remote sensing studies of arthropod vector-borne diseases due to mosquitoes, ticks, blackflies, tsetse flies, and sandflies, which are responsible for the majority of vector-borne diseases in the world. Examples of simple image classification techniques that associate land use and land cover types with vector habitats, as well as complex statistical models that link satellite-derived multi-temporal meteorological observations with vector biology and abundance, are discussed here. Future improvements in remote sensing applications in epidemiology are also discussed.

Brazilian photo exhibition of marine organisms.