The bee, a sentinel of health and the environment

The implementation of a sentinel bee project, through its epidemiological dimension, constitutes the only approach capable of shedding light on the causes of the significant losses that have been affecting bee populations for nearly twenty years. Moreover, such a project makes it possible to assess the state of the environment in which colonies live—an environment that is also our own—in which the bee, owing to its sensitivity to toxic contaminants, plays an early warning role.