The consolidation of the partnership between ANSES and ONCFS reflects the desire of the two organizations to continue and strengthen their association on subjects of common concern in terms of animal health and public health to deal with emergences from wildlife. This collaboration can be considered as a major contribution to public policies in these areas, following recent episodes of crisis such as that of avian influenza or in the event that France would have to manage cases of African swine fever, for example.
Since the 2000s, the “One Health” concept developed by the WHO, FAO and OIE has promoted a systemic vision of public, animal and environmental health. Thus, the surveillance and management of pathologies must be integrated into the overall vision, whether it concerns humans, farm animals or wildlife.
With this in mind, ANSES has for several years integrated the theme of wildlife into its work on animal diseases and toxic phenomena, and the ONCFS for its part has developed and diversified its monitoring and support missions. management of wildlife health issues. The collaboration between the two organizations goes back a long way, whether in terms of surveillance, expertise or research in support of the Ministry responsible for Agriculture. Thus, ANSES’s Rabies and Wildlife Laboratory works with the Epidemiological Surveillance Network for Wild Terrestrial Birds and Mammals in France (SAGIR) – historically created at the instigation of the ONCFS and the National Federation of Hunters (FNC) – ensuring the health surveillance of wild mammals and birds in France for more than 40 years.
Furthermore, the ONCFS regularly relies on the expertise of ANSES to study certain complex animal mortality cases. The Office also works with other systems piloted by ANSES, in particular the surveillance network for lyssaviruses responsible for bat rabies, which provides significant organizational assistance to the surveillance network for abnormal bat mortality. (SMAC). Collaboration with the SAGIR network also makes it possible to supply the phytopharmacovigilance system implemented by ANSES by detecting cases of poisoning in wildlife. These results made it possible to identify unintended effects of plant protection products on wildlife.
The collaboration of the two organizations in support of the management of the outbreak of brucellosis in Bargy ibexes demonstrates the complementarity of their approaches. The two establishments (epidemiologists, ibex specialists, field operational services, national reference laboratory, risk assessment experts, computer modellers, etc.) worked together to propose management scenarios adapted to a totally unexpected reappearance of brucellosis within of a protected species.
Other areas of concern are common to ANSES and ONCFS: bovine tuberculosis, avian influenza and swine fever, which are national priorities that particularly mobilize the two partners. Bovine tuberculosis is a good example of a disease giving rise to collaborations on different levels:
- surveillance and analytical reference with the Sylvatub device, deployed as part of the Animal Health Epidemiology Platform (ESA) and dedicated to wildlife tuberculosis;
- expertise and risk assessment;
- research, with two study projects on oral vaccination of badgers and mapping of interfaces between wildlife and cattle;
- risk management with the supervisory ministries.