One of ANSES’s laboratories specializes in wildlifethe other laboratories of the Agency working on animal diseases are also interested in the risks of disease transmission from wild animals to domestic animals, or from domestic animals to humans.
Understand how pathogens pass from wildlife to domestic animals
One of the aspects of ANSES’s work aims to understand the origin of diseases appearing on farms and the risk of transmission when a new disease is detected in wildlife. This activity can be carried out in partnership with the Sagir network, coordinated by the French Office for Biodiversity, which is in charge of monitoring the mortality of wild species. Thus, in the event of abnormal mortality, ANSES laboratories will be able to participate in investigations into these events.
ANSES laboratories carry out research, to understand how pathogens evolve and what factors allow or prevent them from passing from one species to another. This work is notably done on coronaviruses, the influenza virus, and various bacterial zoonotic agents, such as the agent of tuberculosis and certain parasites.
Develop ways to fight
The Rabies and Wildlife Laboratory has notably contributed to the development of rabies vaccine bait. This vaccine has eradicated rabies in foxes in France. Other means of control are being developed, such as a bovine tuberculosis vaccine for badgers. Another example, the Maisons-Alfort animal health laboratory is developing means of control against ticks, vectors of diseases that can be transmitted from wildlife to humans and has global approaches to identify pathogens transmitted by ticks and mosquitoes. It develops tools for characterizing the pathogenic power of different bacteria and parasites transmitted by wildlife to humans.
Know the risk factors to help develop management measures
Understand how a disease is transmitted, what is its geographical extent, which species carry the pathogen and which are most likely to transmit it, the most favorable conditions for contamination and risky practices… Knowledge of these different factors fuels the development of recommendations to limit the risk of transmission and manage epizootics caused by pathogens transmitted by wild animals. ANSES thus regularly issues opinions on the risks of transmission of pathogens from wild species to domestic animals, for example on avian influenza or bovine tuberculosis.
Improve monitoring and diagnosis
ANSES’s laboratories hold numerous national, European and international reference mandates on diseases likely to be transmissible by or to wildlife: bovine tuberculosis, African swine fever, rabies, avian and swine influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, etc. . Thus, they improve methods for detecting these pathogens and organize training sessions for laboratories approved for monitoring these diseases in animals. They thus guarantee the reliability of the analyzes carried out.