The report makes recommendations on how to improve bee surveillance systems and says further studies are needed to better understand the factors that affect honey bee health.

EFSA has been working on colony losses in honey bees since 2008, when it began collecting at European level information on chemical residues in honey, honey production in the EU Member States and bee surveillance programmes. The report which has now been published has been presented to the European Commission and will help to inform future research and surveillance activities to address the issue of colony losses.

Disclaimer: This external report is not an EFSA output as such but the output of a scientific or technical project that EFSA has funded to support its work in accordance with Article 36 of its Founding Regulation. The report was produced by the beneficiaries of an EFSA grant following a call for proposals published on the EFSA website and is published here to help keep the public informed of developments related to EFSA’s scientific work. EFSA reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and conclusions reached in the present document, without prejudice to the rights of the authors.

EFSA’s previous work on bees: