Discovery of multiple bee-hazardous pesticides in ornamental plants via the Bee-Plex multi-target microsphere screening method

• Published in: Journal of hazardous materials 2025-01, Vol.482, p.136556, Article 136556
• Main Authors: Zou, Rubing, van Dam, Ruud, Smits, Nathalie, Beij, Erik, Bovee, Toine, de Graaf, Dirk C., Guo, Yirong, Peters, Jeroen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bee-hazardous pesticides; LC-MS/MS; Microsphere-based immunoassay; Multi-analyte detection; Ornamental plants
• ISSN: 0304-3894; 1873-3336; 1873-3336
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136556

Exposure to pesticides is one of the main drivers of global bee decline. However, the occurrence of pesticides in bee-attracting crops remains underexposed due to the lack of efficient on-site screening approaches for multi-analyte monitoring. Utilizing color-encoded superparamagnetic microspheres, we constructed a portable 8-plex indirect competitive microsphere-based immunoassay for the simultaneous determination of multiple bee-hazardous residues (Bee-Plex). Through a single measurement within 40 min, Bee-Plex exhibited high sensitivities with IC50values of 0.04, 0.08, 0.14, 0.15, 0.78, 0.86, 7.72, and 8.79 ng/mL for imidacloprid, parathion, fipronil, emamectin, carbofuran, chlorpyrifos, fenpropathrin and carbaryl, respectively. Moreover, the implementation of multiple broad-specific antibodies enables a wide-range screening profile for 30 pesticides and pesticide metabolites, detecting 6 neonicotinoids, 6 N-methyl carbamates 6 organophosphates, 5 avermectins, 5 pyrethroids and 2 phenylpyrazoles. The combination of Bee-Plex screening (93 % accuracy) and LC-MS/MS confirmatory analysis revealed contaminations of neonicotinoids (100 %) and avermectins (70 %) in roses, with occurrence frequencies of 79 %, 79 %, 21 %, 21 %, 7 %, and 7 % for imidacloprid, acetamiprid, clothianidin, thiacloprid, imidaclothiz, and nitenpyram, respectively. Above all, this study offers a powerful analytical tool for rapid screening of multiple bee-hazardous pesticides, offering new insights in the occurrence of multi-pesticide contamination in ornamental plants. [Display omitted] •A sensitive 8-plex immunoassay for multiple bee-hazardous pesticides (Bee-Plex) was established.•The Bee-Plex is able to monitoring all 30 pesticides or metabolites by using broad-specific antibodies.•The LC-MS/MS outcomes confirmed 93 % accuracy for the Bee-Plex screening.•High contaminations of neonicotinoids (100 %) and avermectins (70 %) were found in roses.