http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/001026/l26112442.html

PARIS, Oct 26 (Reuters) - European chemicals giant Aventis (NYSE:AVE - news)
on Thursday denied any link between its pesticide Regent and a mystery illness
which has devastated the bee population in parts of France.

Aventis CropScience France, the company's French agricultural unit, said in a
statement that Regent did not belong to the category of so-called systemic pesticides
which honey makers blame for intoxicating bees, causing scores to die.

Systemic pesticides are spread via the sap into the plant.

Protests by beekeepers have targeted mainly Gaucho, a pesticide made by
Bayer AG , but have also called Regent into question.

Both products are used to coat seeds and both are designed to protect sunseed
crops against insects,but Aventis said its product functioned in a different manner
from systemic pesticides.

``Regent TS has none of the characteristics questioned by beekeepers.
Regent TS is a non-systemic insecticide. This property means that in no event
 is it carried via the sap into the upper areas of the plant,'' the company said.

``The fact is that these characteristics allow no contact between the bee and the
 product,'' it added.

The Farm Ministry, responding to concerns about so-called ``mad bee disease'',
in January 1999 suspended use of Bayer's Gaucho pesticide on sunseeds as a
precautionary measure.

But beekeepers said the measure was insufficient, as studies found that Gaucho
left a residue which meant that even after two years, plants sown on the same spot
as the crop originally treated contained traces of the product.

They are demanding the ban be extended to wheat, barley, maize and sugar beet
crops which are currently treated with systemic pesticides, mainly to protect them
against greenflies.

Bayer has confirmed that Gaucho leaves a small residue in nectar and pollen, but
said there was no evidence of any link between Gaucho and the drop in bee
population affecting mainly central and eastern France.

The National Union of French Beekeepers (UNAF) said French honey production
fell to around 25,000 tonnes in 1999 from 35,000 tonnes before systemic pesticides
were introduced in the early 1990s. The number of hives has plummeted to one
million from 1.45 million in 1996.