Ghislain, you should be in a good position to comment on the fact that Belgium stood out in that study as the worst place in Europe for honeybee survival in 2012-13.  What do you think explains that very high loss rate of 33.6%?  

Here are some possibilities, I'm just putting a few out there for discussion:

- Belgium was very badly affected by the wet summer in 2012 and the long cold winter of 2012-13.  We were here in the UK, and the map in the report shows high losses in a band across W and N Europe consistent with the southerly track of the jet stream that summer.  Is that possible?  This is just a hypothesis!

- perhaps there is a lack of late-season forage in Belgium which saved colonies in some parts of Europe that summer

- Beekeepers in Belgium really are bad beekeepers (just another hypothesis! ... I don't think it likely ... )

- pesticide use in Belgium is much, much worse than in countries with lower losses such as Italy, France, Germany, Spain and several others.

This new report was remarkable for the levels of foulbrood seen in France (up to 11.6% of apiaries with AFB) and the levels of Varroasis in the UK (up to 52% of apiaries) and Latvia (even worse!).  Belgium reported very low levels of both, but was that real or is it related to how the data were collected?  Are Belgian beekeepers really a lot better than those in France and the UK?  I wondered about the reporting of bee disease as Table 20 from the 2009 report on 'Bee Mortality and Bee Surveillance in Europe' suggests that you lack a central lab for surveillance and diagnosis.

https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/downloadNews.cfm?id=54

However, you told us not of the main report but the spin put on it by a group complaining about pesticides.  So are pesticides the best explanation for the high losses in Belgium and the low losses in two neighbours, Germany and France?

best wishes

Gavin

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