ANSES in action: 2022 Annual Report

At ANSES’s Maisons-Alfort site, the Expert Committee on “Assessment of the risks related to air environments” is holding its May meeting to work on air pollution. The group’s Chair leads the debates. At ANSES, around 80 such groups bring together French and foreign scientific experts from research organisations and universities, whose skills are considered benchmarks in a variety of disciplines. Each group meets regularly, for one or two consecutive days, to conduct a critical analysis of the various data and then draw up collective expert appraisal conclusions on the health risks they have been convened to examine, in support of ANSES’s opinions.

Cindy, a virologist, is analysing a virus titration. The iCUBE’s biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) laboratories are used to handle highly contagious and/or vector-borne viruses. In line with biosafety rules, special procedures are applied to ensure the handler’s safety against viruses that can be transmitted to humans, such as West Nile virus, or to protect the environment from viruses that infect only animals, such as the one responsible for foot-and-mouth disease. Pathogens are primarily contained by maintaining negative air pressure in the laboratory in relation to the outside atmosphere. Appropriate personal protective clothing and equipment are mandatory, and surfaces, equipment and waste are decontaminated. Clearance is required to work in a BSL-3 facility

Laure, an animal health eco-epidemiologist at the Nancy Laboratory for Rabies and Wildlife, collects ticks from natural environments, forests and gardens. These sampling campaigns help determine the tick species present and their distribution. Laboratory research into the pathogens they carry will enable us to better understand their circulation and control the spread of the diseases they transmit.