ABSTRACT In modern agriculture, synthetic agrochemicals are still the main line of defense in most pest management programs. Insecticides can have lethal or sublethal impacts on non-target organisms (species that recycle nutrients in the soil, pollinators and predators of target species). They also can contaminate food sources of organisms of higher trophic levels. To achieve protection of non-target organisms from the effects caused by the continued development and use of agrochemicals in modern agriculture, the European Economic Community and the Environmental Pollutant Agency emphasize the necessity of developing bioassays on honeybees to approve an agrochemical registration. The toxicity of commercial formulations of two insecticides, α-endosulphan (organochlorine) and α-cypermethrin (piretroid), and a commercial formulation of the herbicide glyphosate (organophosphorus) was analyzed. The analysis was performed on the bees using the comet assay as a biomarker of damaged DNA. The assay performed demonstrated the mutagenic effects caused by agrochemicals in DNA cells of the hypopharingeal gland from the bees.
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