The current risk assessment methodology performed for birds and ground dwelling mammals exposed to pesticides in the EU is not sufficiently protective of bats, although a protected species of great importance for ecosystem services, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stressed in a scientific opinion published on 29 July in the form of a declaration.
These flying mammals help to regulate arthropod populations, including pest species in farmland, forests and urban areas.
The EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) was invited to comment on concerns raised by recent research, in particular whether bats are more or less toxicologically sensitive than birds and mammals with the highest sensitivity, whether oral exposure of bats to pesticides is greater or lower than in ground dwelling mammals and birds, whether there are other important exposure routes relevant to bats.
The Panel concluded that bats are not sufficiently covered by the current risk assessment system and that it is necessary to develop a specific risk assessment approach for bats.
According to the Panel, this bat‐specific risk assessment scheme. should focus on: - oral exposure via residues in insects and grooming; - dermal exposure; - exposure of pups via milk.
It is important to highlight that any risk assessment scheme should consider the total body burden from all exposure routes as bats foraging in the field will be exposed to residues in insects, and via dermal and inhalation routes, experts say.
Europe's 53 bat species are an important component of vertebrate diversity and are all protected under the Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)