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Our societies are facing risks for which international organizations such as the WHO, 0IE, FAO call for a new international health governance. This paper aims at analyzing the confrontation between this international governance and national specificities. Our analysis is based on empirical research conducted in Vietnam in 2008, on avian influenza (H5N1 ). It focuses on the period beginning with the first outbreaks in 2003 and ending in 2008. We highlight two phases in H5N1 management by the Vietnamese authorities : a first phase based on past experiences (i.e. SARS) and related to national issues such as the consolidation of the central power in relation to provincial authorities ; a second phase more in line with international governance principles and devoted to diplomatic issues such as WTO membership. This analysis concludes that international health governance should not underestimate the complexity of local situations, that taking into account national cultures of risk should not ignore local dynamics, and that focusing on constraints should not mask opportunities associated to risks., Nos sociétés sont actuellement confrontées à des risques sanitaires, souvent d'origine animale, qui amènent les organisations internationales telles que l' OIE, l'OMS et la FAO à promouvoir nouvelle gouvernance mondiale. Nous examinons ici la question des spécificités nationales dans ce projet de gouvernance. Notre analyse est basée sur une étude menée en 2008 au Vietnam sur 1 epizootie de aviaire (H5N1). Nous distinguons, sur la période étudiée allant de 2003 à 2008, deux phases dans gestion de ce risque par les autorités vietnamiennes : une première phase basée sur l'expérience nationale passée, notamment celle du SRAS, et répondant à des enjeux de légitimation interne du pouvoir central ; une deuxième phase plus conforme aux approches des organisations internationales et répondant à des enjeux de diplomatie internationale, liés en particulier au projet d'adhésion du pays à l'OMC. analyse montre que le projet de gouvernance sanitaire mondiale ne doit pas sous-estimer les complexités niveau local, que la considération des cultures nationales ne doit pas amener à négliger les dynamiques locales et que les contraintes ne doivent masquer les opportunités indissociablement liées aux risques., Figuié Muriel, Fournier Tristan. Risques sanitaires globaux et politiques nationales : la gestion de la grippe aviaire au Vietnam . In: Revue d’études en Agriculture et Environnement, Vol. 91, N°3, 2010. pp. 327-343.

A l’occasion de son 20ème anniversaire, la revue INRA Productions Animales a décidé de publier un numéro spécial sur «20 ans de recherches en productions animales à l’INRA». Son objectif est de retracer, à travers quelques exemples significatifs, des résultats scientifiques majeurs de l’INRA en productions animales, qui ont déjà pour la plupart un impact avéré en élevage. Les avancées spectaculaires de la biologie et des approches systémiques au cours des dernières décennies, tant conceptuelles que méthodologiques, ont eu de très nombreuses répercussions sur les recherches en productions animales, qu’il serait impossible de détailler de façon exhaustive dans le cadre de ce seul numéro. C’est pourquoi nous avons choisi de présenter à grands traits certaines de ces avancées dans cette brève introduction, avant d’en proposer plusieurs illustrations dans les articles de ce numéro. voir le pdf complet à cette adresse https://www6.inrae.fr/productions-animales_eng/content/download/3046/30746/version/1/file/Prod_Anim_2008_21_1_03.pdf

La gestion des soins aux animaux domestiques repose sur l’éleveur qui décidera des actions à entreprendre, selon les conseils qui lui sont prodigués ou selon ses propres connaissances. Aucune donnée n’existe sur l’attitude des éleveurs de chevaux concernant leur conception de leur élevage, et en particulier, vis-à-vis des infestations parasitaires de leurs animaux. La connaissance de cette attitude face aux parasites digestifs des chevaux est un élément indispensable pour construire une gestion de la santé des équidés optimisée entre éleveurs et vétérinaires. L’objectif de l’étude était de décrire les attitudes des éleveurs de trotteurs face aux infestations parasitaires de leurs chevaux. En 2013, quinze haras situés en Normandie ont été soumis à une entrevue ouverte d’environ trente minutes au sujet de leur conception de l’élevage et de la santé de leurs animaux. Ces entrevues étaient enregistrées puis ensuite retranscrites en fichiers textes afin de pouvoir analyser le contenu des discours. L’analyse était réalisée après plusieurs lectures permettant d’extraire les phrases représentatives du discours. Le logiciel Tropes, outil d’analyse textuelle, a ensuite permis d’étudier trois points qui paraissaient importants : l’élevage de chevaux, les problèmes liés à l’élevage et les infestations parasitaires. Les résultats montrent que le cheval est considéré comme un outil de travail par la majorité des éleveurs et que l’élevage des équidés génère de nombreux problèmes. Chaque éleveur a une pathologie qui lui semble importante mais il y en a une grande diversité d’un élevage à l’autre. Les infestations parasitaires des chevaux ne semblent pas être un souci majeur car elles sont peu corrélées au mot « problème » dans le discours. Selon les éleveurs, un « traitement » « systématique », un « protocole » et une bonne « organisation » sont suffisants pour gérer correctement les infestations parasitaires. Chez la majorité des éleveurs, il y a une grande frustration dans leur organisation car ils manquent de temps pour bien faire leur travail : c’est en partie la raison pour laquelle ils se reposent sur le savoir et les propositions du vétérinaire. Les propositions techniques qui pourraient être faites pour contrôler les infestations parasitaires des chevaux devront donc s’articuler autour de ce désir de traitement simple à mettre en place

Diseases transmitted by insect vectors have a major impact on human and animal health, as well as on the economy of societies. Because of their modes of transmission, these vector-borne diseases-zoonotic or not-are particularly sensitive to climate change. The climate and its variations determine, sometimes substantially, the presence of vectors at a given place, as well as their density and capacity to transmit diseases. The climate also has an influence on the presence and density of animals and humans, in addition to the survival capacities of pathogens in a given environment. All of the components, conditions and processes necessary for the transmission of these diseases form a complex dynamic system whose behaviour, under the influence of the climate and other environmental variables, will determine whether or not transmission will occur. Experimental and epidemiological studies are carried out in laboratory and field conditions to gain greater insight into the underlying biological processes and measure the impact of climate parameters on these processes. Mathematical modelling is used to represent these systems and simulate their behaviour under different environmental conditions. This major tool sheds light on the biological phenomena involved in the transmission of given pathogens, while also simulating, over a more or less long time scale, spatiotemporal variations in the intensity of this transmission so as to be able to tailor control strategies against these diseases.

Health strategies and policies must be adapted in response to climate change within a broader context of global change involving increasing demand for animal products, globalization of their trade, and the impact of multiple environmental, socioeconomic and climatic determinants of human and animal health. In that setting, there is a greater risk that parasitic and infectious animal and zoonotic diseases will emerge, persist or spread, so livestock production and health sectors must become more resilient while reducing countries' vulnerability to climate-sensitive diseases through adaptation measures. These will involve ranking diseases by severity and evaluating and then minimizing risks (surveillance, prevention and control) pursuant to ad hoc legislation based on the One Health concept.

Biological rhythms are essential for life. There is evidence that the circadian rhythm of activity is disrupted under chronic stress. It may also be less marked during diseases. We investigated if we could detect a circadian rhythm of activity of dairy cow s in commercial settings using a real - time positioning system. We used the CowView (GEA Farm Technologies) to detect regularly the individual positions of 3 50 cows in a Danish dairy farm for five months , and to infer the cows’ activity ( resting , feed ing , standing, and walking ) from their position and their movements . We ran a factorial analysis of correspondence s of the cows’ activities and used t he 1 st component of this analysis to express the variations in activity . On this axis, the four activities obtained the following weights: resting, - .19; standing , +0.12; walking, +.26; and feeding, +.29. Applying these weights to the proportions of time each cow spent on each of the four activities, we could describe a circadian rhythm of a ctivity. We noticed that t he average level of activity of a cow on a given day and its variations during that day var ied with specific states: heat, lameness, disease. This offers the possibil ity to design models to predict physiological or pathological st ates of cows from real time positioning.

Boar taint is the major issue for raising entire male pigs. Genetics and feeding are known to influence boar taint levels. Other factors such as health could also play a role by affecting the sexual development. Indeed, the immune system is able to modulate sexual hormones. The objective of the present study was to reveal the effect of a subclinical health challenge on the sexual development of boars, and therefore on boar taint. We tried to induce a weak chronic inflammation to mimic health problems in farms, thanks to a degraded sanitary environment. Boars (n = 56) from a commercial breed were allocated at 139 (± 0.7) days of age (Day 0) and 80 (± 5.4) kg of liveweight to either “clean” (n = 32) or “dirty” (n = 24) rooms for 4 weeks. The “dirty” room was previously soiled by other pigs, was weakly ventilated and was not cleaned during the treatment period. The “clean” room was cleaned and disinfected before entry of the experimental pigs, cleaned every day, correctly ventilated and special clothes were used by staff entering the room. Blood was collected on Day 0 and 27 to measure numbers of granulocytes and lymphocytes, levels of the acute phase protein CRP and sex hormones (testosterone, estradiol) in plasma. On Day 27, a biopsy of fat was collected from the neck to measure boar taint compounds (androstenone, skatole, indole). Saliva was collected to establish variations of CRP and estrone. Cleanliness of boars was evaluated on a scale of 0 to 4 based on the percentage of the body soiled by feces (0: 0.05). Between Days 0 and 27, concentrations of sex hormones increased (P < 0.0001) in saliva and plasma indicating that the pubertal process of maturation was progressing (P < 0.0001). We found an effect of treatment on fat skatole (0.043 vs 0.13 μg/g of pure fat, P < 0.0001) and indole (0.030 vs 0.44 μg/g of pure fat, P = 0.0005) with higher values for the soiled boars. The correlation between fat androstenone and plasma estradiol levels was high on Day 0 (r = 0.53, P < 0.0001) and Day 27 (r = 0.69, P < 0.0001). Our study did not reveal health differences with respect to the sanitary status of boars, so the stated hypothesis could not be tested. We did, however, confirmed a strong effect of a soiled environment on fat skatole levels. In addition, our data show that fat androstenone is dependent on the level of plasma estradiol measured just before or 4 weeks before.

The obligate intracellular bacterium Ehrlichia ruminantium (ER) causes heartwater, a fatal tick-borne disease in livestock. In the field, ER strains present different levels of virulence, limiting vaccine efficacy, for which the molecular basis remains unknown. Moreover, there are no genetic tools currently available for ER manipulation, thus limiting the knowledge of the genes/proteins that are essential for ER pathogenesis and biology. As such, to identify proteins and/or mechanisms involved in ER virulence, we performed the first exhaustive comparative proteomic analysis between a virulent strain (ERGvir) and its high-passaged attenuated strain (ERGatt). Despite their different behaviors in vivo and in vitro, our results from 1DE-nanoLC-MS/MS showed that ERGvir and ERGatt share 80% of their proteins; this core proteome includes chaperones, proteins involved in metabolism, protein-DNA-RNA biosynthesis and processing, and bacterial effectors. Conventional 2DE revealed that 85% of the identified proteins are proteoforms, suggesting that post-translational modifications (namely glycosylation) are important in ER biology. Strain-specific proteins were also identified: while ERGatt has an increased number and overexpression of proteins involved in cell division, metabolism, transport and protein processing, ERGvir shows an overexpression of proteins and proteoforms (DIGE experiments) involved in pathogenesis such as Lpd, AnkA, VirB9 and B10, providing molecular evidence for its increased virulence in vivo and in vitro. Overall, our work reveals that ERGvir and ERGatt proteomes are streamlined to fulfill their biological function (maximum virulence for ERGvir and replicative capacity for ERGatt), and we provide both pioneering data and novel insights into the pathogenesis of this obligate intracellular bacterium.

Mastitis is an inflammatory disease of the mammary gland, which causes huge economic losses in the milk production chain. The involvement of the internal microbiota of the bovine udder in the modulation of pathogens populations and, consequently, of the infection prevalence has never been investigated so far. In this study, the udder microbiota was investigated in 31 quarters (corresponding to 27 cows) whose sanitary status ranged from healthy (i.e. no mastitis during the previous lactations) to susceptible to mastitis (i.e. one to several mastitis episodes during each of the previous lactations). Total bacterial DNA was extracted from foremilk samples and swab samples of the teat canal in each cow. The 16S DNA was PCR-amplified (Variable Regions 3 and 4) and pyrosequenced (GS Flex+, 454 Roche). Phylobiome was analyzed using QIIME, and results were further treated using R, and LEfSe. Clustering of the samples based on their bacterial composition showed a link between udder microbiota and sanitary status. Healthy quarters showed a higher diversity compared to mastitis susceptible ones (Shannon index ~8 and 6 respectively). Discriminant analysis of phylobiomes revealed dysbiosis in mastitis-susceptible quarters and allowed identification of taxonomic markers in relation to mastitis susceptibility. Healthy quarters were associated to a higher proportion of the Clostridia class (including genera such as Ruminococcus, Oscillospira, Roseburia, Dorea…), the Bacteroidetes phylum (Prevotella, Bacteroides, Paludibacter…), and the Bifidobacteriales order (Bifidobacterium) whereas mastitissusceptible quarters showed a higher proportion of the Bacilli class (Staphylococcus) and Chlamydiia class. These results suggest that a diverse and balanced microbiota in the udder contributes to the mammary gland health, likely by exerting a barrier affect with regard to pathogens, as observed in other contexts (e.g. human gut). Mechanisms of interaction between this endogenous microbiota and the mammary gland deserve further investigations, which will help maintain a balanced mammary microbiota e.g. through the development of mammary probiotics.

International audience; We summarize the current knowledge on parasitism-related invasion processes of the globally invasive Rattus lineages, originating from Asia, and how these invasions have impacted the local epidemiology of rodent-borne diseases. Parasites play an important role in the invasion processes and successes of their hosts through multiple biological mechanisms such as “parasite release,” “immunocompetence advantage,” “biotic resistance” and “novel weapon.” Parasites may also greatly increase the impact of invasions by spillover of parasites and other pathogens, introduced with invasive hosts, into new hosts, potentially leading to novel emerging diseases. Another potential impact is the ability of the invader to amplify local parasites by spillback. In both cases, local fauna and humans may be exposed to new health risks, which may decrease biodiversity and potentially cause increases in human morbidity and mortality. Here we review the current knowledge on these processes and propose some research priorities.

Cet article étudie le fonctionnement d’un dispositif de surveillance des bactéries résistantes d’origine animale, le Résapath. Nous montrons, à partir d’une analyse à la fois historique et pragmatique de ce dispositif, comment trois catégories d’acteurs ont progressivement été amenées à coopérer dans le but de produire des connaissances sur les risques d’antibiorésistance liés à l’utilisation des antibiotiques en médecine vétérinaire. Mais les investissements des microbiologistes, des épidémiologistes et des vétérinaires praticiens au sein du dispositif ne reposent pas sur les mêmes pratiques et ne relèvent pas des mêmes finalités. Le Résapath tend donc à fabriquer trois référents ontologiques distincts de bactéries résistantes, dont l’incommensurabilité engendre des formes d’ignorances et rend incertaine la gouvernabilité des objets de (mé)connaissance ainsi produits., This paper focuses on the functioning of a surveillance device of resistant bacteria of animal origin, named Resapath. Through a historical and pragmatic analyse, I show how three kinds of actors progressively cooperate with the aim of producing knowledge on antimicrobial resistance risks related to the use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine. But the involvements of microbiologists, epidemiologists and veterinarians in the surveillance device don't rest on the same practices and the same objectives. So Resapth produce three ontologies of resistant bacteria that are partly incommensurable and shape ignorance and uncertainties in the governability of such (non) knowledge objects.

In Senegal, considerable mortality in the equine population and hence major economic losses were caused by the African horse sickness (AHS) epizootic in 2007. [i]Culicoides oxystoma[/i] and [i]Culicoides imicola[/i], known or suspected of being vectors of bluetongue and AHS viruses are two predominant species in the vicinity of horses and are present all year-round in Niayes area, Senegal. The aim of this study was to better understand the environmental and climatic drivers of the dynamics of these two species. [i]Culicoides[/i] collections were obtained using OVI (Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute) light traps at each of the 5 sites for three nights of consecutive collection per month over one year. Cross Correlation Map analysis was performed to determine the time-lags for which environmental variables and abundance data were the most correlated. [i]C. oxystoma[/i] and [i]C. imicola[/i] count data were highly variable and overdispersed. Despite modelling large [i]Culicoides[/i] counts (over 220,000 [i]Culicoides[/i] captured in 354 night-traps), using on-site climate measures, overdispersion persisted in Poisson, negative binomial, Poisson regression mixed-effect with random effect at the site of capture models. The only model able to take into account overdispersion was the Poisson regression mixed-effect model with nested random effects at the site and date of capture levels. According to this model, meteorological variables that contribute to explaining the dynamics of [i]C. oxystoma[/i] and [i]C. imicola[/i] abundances were: mean temperature and relative humidity of the capture day, mean humidity between 21 and 19 days prior a capture event, density of ruminants, percentage cover of water bodies within a 2 km radius and interaction between temperature and humidity for [i]C. oxysto[/i]ma; mean rainfall and NDVI of the capture day and percentage cover of water bodies for [i]C. imicola[/i]. Other variables such as soil moisture, wind speed, degree days, land cover or landscape metrics could be tested to improve the models. Further work should also assess whether other trapping methods such as host-baited traps help reduce overdispersion.

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International audience; Background: Regular and relevant evaluations of surveillance systems are essential to improve their performance and cost-effectiveness. With this in mind several organizations have developed evaluation approaches to facilitate the design and implementation of these evaluations. Methods: In order to identify and to compare the advantages and limitations of these approaches, we implemented a systematic review using the PRISMA guidelines (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). Results: After applying exclusion criteria and identifying other additional documents via citations, 15 documents were retained. These were analysed to assess the field (public or animal health) and the type of surveillance systems targeted; the development process; the objectives; the evaluation process and its outputs; and the attributes covered. Most of the approaches identified were general and provided broad recommendations for evaluation. Several common steps in the evaluation process were identified: (i) defining the surveillance system under evaluation, (ii) designing the evaluation process, (iii) implementing the evaluation, and (iv) drawing conclusions and recommendations. Conclusions: A lack of information regarding the identification and selection of methods and tools to assess the evaluation attributes was highlighted; as well as a lack of consideration of economic attributes and sociological aspects.

The CORE Organic II project ProPIG aimed to assess animal health and welfare as well as environmental impact on organic pig farms across three husbandry systems in Europe (indoor, outdoor and partly outdoor) and to develop farm specific improvement strategies. 74 farms across the 8 project countries were visited three times within one year. In addition to assessing animal health and welfare indicators and environmental impact, semi-qualitative interviews were conducted on 63 farms during farm visits 1 and 3 to evaluate the farmer’s satisfaction with the status quo, perception of future aims and ideas for improvement. Some questions were asked as open questions, while others used a five-point answer scale. A descriptive classification of the responses to the open question regarding the goals for the immediate future revealed that most farmers were aiming to improve either health (19 responses), performance (13) or welfare (9) (two answers per farm were possible). Improving welfare was exclusively a topic for indoor or partly indoor farmers, whereas improving performance was proportionally more often mentioned by outdoor farmers. Similar results were found when asked to rate the satisfaction with pig health and welfare at visit 1: 9% (3) and 38% (13) of indoor farmers were very satisfied with the health and welfare situation, respectively (point 5 on the scale), whereas on outdoor farms 50% (6) were very satisfied and 50% (6) satisfied. Outdoor farmers were less satisfied with the production level (25% (3) very satisfied, 9% (1) satisfied and 66% (8) neutral). 63% (40) and 53% (33) of all farmers across the three systems stated that an improvement in terms of health or welfare, respectively, is needed and also possible to implement. Our results show that organic pig farmers, in general and especially when pigs are kept indoors, are aware of problems relating to animal health and welfare and are willing to improve.

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National audience

Les mammites ont un impact économique considérable dans les régions productrices de lait de divers pays, dont le Brésil et la France. Elles constituent la première cause de consommation d’antibiotiques dans les élevages laitiers qui doivent répondre à une forte demande sociétale pour une agriculture consommant moins d’intrants et plus respectueuse de l’environnement et du bien-être animal. Il y a donc une réelle nécessité de trouver des outils alternatifs efficaces pour le contrôle des mammites bovines infectieuses. Ce travail de thèse a eu comme objectif la recherche de souches de bactéries lactiques (BL) ayant des capacités inhibitrices de l´infection mammaire, pouvant être utilisées comme probiotiques mammaires. Pour cela, 278 (165 en France et 113 au Brésil) souches bactériennes ont été isolées à partir de lait et de la superficie et du canal du trayon de vaches laitières et 9 souches non-redondantes de BL ont été identifiées et caractérisées en fonction de leurs propriétés de paroi et de production de composés inhibiteurs avant d´évaluer leurs interactions avec des agents pathogènes responsables de mammites et/ou avec les cellules hôtes dans un modèle de cellules épithéliales mammaires bovines (CEMb). Certaines souches de Lactobacillus brevis e Lactobacillus plantarum ont montré une bonne capacité d’adhésion aux cellules épithéliales ce qui pourrait inhiber l´invasion par Staphylococcus aureus, un pathogène majeur responsable de mammites, et de stimuler la production de cytokines pro- et anti- inflammatoires par les CEMb. D´autres tests d'interaction avec des lignées cellulaires en co- inoculation ont mis en évidence que la souche Lactococcus lactis V7 était capable d´inhiber de manière significative l'invasion des CEMb par Escherichia coli et S. aureus. Le mécanisme exact de cette inhibition n´a pas été élucidé, mais la souche L. lactis V7 a montré des capacités prometteuses en termes de probiotique mammaire, notamment, la capacité de moduler la réponse immunitaire des CEMb infectées par E. coli en intensifiant la réponse inflammatoire. A partir des résultats obtenus au cours de ce travail, on peut suggérer que des souches de L. brevis, L. plantarum et L. lactis V7 présentent des qualités intéressantes pour une possible stratégie de prévention voire de lutte contre la mammite. Ces souches sont en effet capable d'inhiber la croissance et l'adhésion et/ou l'invasion de bactéries pathogènes et de moduler la réponse immunitaire des cellules-hôte, Mastitis causes huge economic losses in the dairy sector both in Brazil and France. They also are the first cause of antibiotic consomption in the dairy farms. There is thus a need for new alternatives to antibiotics to control infectious mastitis. In this thesis work, we isolated 278 (165 in France and 113 in Brazil) bacterial strains from bovine milk and teat canal, and identified 9 non-redundant lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains that were further tested as potential mammary probiotic candidates. LAB strains were tested for their surface properties and production of inhibitory compounds and then evaluated for their interactions with Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, two major mastitis pathogens, or with bovine mammary epithelial cells (bMEC), in vitro. Some LAB strains (Lactobacillus brevis e Lactobacillus plantarum) presented inhibitory capacity against S. aureus adhesion and internalisation and were shown to stimulate the production of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in bMEC. Other interaction tests with bMEC showed that Lactococcus lactis V7 was able to significantly inhibit bMEC invasion by Escherichia coli and S. aureus. Although the inhibitory mechanism was not elucidated, Lactococcus lactis V7 showed promising capacities in terms of mammary probiotic potential with, notably, the ability to modulate the immune response of E. coli-infected bMEC by modifying the expression of inflammatory cytokine genes. In this work, several LAB strains were identified in the milk and teat canal microbiota. We showed that L. brevis, L. plantarum and Lactococcus lactis V7 strains had interesting properties for a possible strategy to prevent or treat against mastitis.

Lors d’un problème de santé, les ressources nutritionnelles d’un animal en croissance sont limitées par la réduction de son ingestion, le conduisant à détourner les nutriments de sa fonction de croissance vers ses fonctions de défense. Les porcs actuels, à fort potentiel de croissance, semblent moins robustes que les races anciennes à croissance plus lente, mais cette relation a été peu étudiée. Ce travail vise à tester l’effet de la vitesse de croissance des porcs sur les pertes/saisies en engraissement, et des indicateurs d’inflammation. Une base de données a été créée en regroupant les performances et les pertes/saisies de 5 863 porcs en engraissement issus de trois stations expérimentales de l’INRA. Dans l’une d’elles, les causes des pertes étaient enregistrées et des prélèvements de sang ont été réalisés avant l’abattage des porcs (110 kg). Au total, 7% des porcs sont perdus en engraissement ou saisis à l’abattoir et la répartition dans le temps de ces pertes diffère entre les stations. Un poids à la naissance et une croissance en maternité élevées favorisent une consommation et une croissance élevées jusqu’en fin d’engraissement sans être néfastes à la survie, ni prédictif d’une saisie à l’abattoir. L’hypothèse d’une plus grande fragilité des porcs à croissance rapide n’est pas vérifiée, mais des corrélations négatives entre performances et nombre de cellules immunitaires et positives avec l’hématocrite apparaissent dans cette étude. D’autres études sont nécessaires pour identifier des indicateurs prédictifs des pertes d’animaux en engraissement ou à l’abattage., During health disorders, growing animals have to divert nutrients from growth to defense functions despite a reduction in nutrient resources because of a reduced voluntary feed intake. Modern high‐performance pigs are suspected of being less robust than former low‐performance breeds but this relation has been poorly investigated. The present work has been designed to study the effect of growth rate in growing‐fattening pigs on the losses, on the one hand, and inflammatory markers, on the other hand. A database was built using performances and losses of 5 863 growing‐fattening pigs in three experimental units of INRA. In one of the three units, causes of losses were recorded and blood samples were collected before slaughter (110 kg). In total, 7% of pigs were lost during the fattening period or at slaughter (carcass condemnation) and the time distribution of losses varied between research units. A high birth weight combined with a rapid pre‐weaning growth were associated with a high feed intake and rapid growth until the end of the fattening period without detrimental effect on survival, nor on carcass condemnation. The assumption of a greater weakness of high‐performance pigs is not verified, but negative correlations between performance and immune cell counts positive with hematocrit appear in the present study. Other research is necessary to identify predictive indicators of pig losses during the fattening period and at slaughter.

Groupement d’Intérêt Scientifique “Muscle, viandes et produits carnés”; National audience

International audience; Animal welfare is an area which receives more and more attention from media, NGOs, consumers and politicians. In order to meet the expectations from the surrounding society, animal industries must meet the public concerns openly, demonstrate transparency, and show a continued focus on improving animal welfare conditions. Overall, WelFur is designed to fulfil three purposes: 1) Provide a reliable and feasible system for animal welfare assessment based on scientifically proven measures. 2) Create consumer transparency about animal welfare standards on European fur farms. 3) Work as a toolbox for the individual fur farmer to point out and improve any areas on the fur farm where welfare standards potentially can be improved. With that in mind, the European Fur Breeders’ Association started the WelFur project for fur farmed species (mink and fox) in 2009. The WelFur system is based on the methodology of the European Commission’s Welfare Quality® project, which is widely recognized as the world’s most comprehensive animal welfare assessment system. Animal welfare can be a difficult concept to pin down, and many people have their own personal views. Despite this, there is general agreement within the scientific community about what represents good animal welfare. This consensus has been expressed in the Five Freedoms which is a definition of ideal physical and mental states for animals. WelFur is largely inspired by the European Commission’s Welfare Quality® project that established four principles essential to safeguard and improve animal welfare: Good Housing, Good Feeding, Good Health and Appropriate Behaviour. These principles complement and build on the Five Freedoms. Within the principles Good Housing, Good Feeding, Good Health and Appropriate Behaviour, the Welfare Quality® project defined 12 specific animal welfare criteria. Below the 12 criteria are a number of welfare measurements which are species-specific and must consider the biology of the animal species. The specific welfare measurements for mink and fox have been chosen by the scientists behind their project for their scientific validity, reliability and feasibility. Representing 7 European universities and institutions, the scientists did an in-depth review of all existing animal welfare research on fur animals before they identified the welfare indicators and measurements that eventually became the WelFur protocols. Throughout the development of WelFur external scientific reviewers have conserved the quality of the scientific work and the alignment with the original Welfare Quality® project. The scoring of the welfare measurements have been accomplished with the support of INRA (French National Institute of Agronomic Research).

Prioritisation of diseases is an essential tool for policy-makers in charge of allocating resources for surveillance and control programmes or for research projects, to target diseases that need to be addressed ahead of others. Nevertheless, methods for prioritisation need to be transparent, standardised and repeatable to be effective and objective in setting priorities. To date, various models have been developed, experimenting different approaches, but it remains some room for improvement in the design of such tools. The definition of the criteria – indicators used to assess diseases regarding the objective of the prioritisation exercise – is one of the cornerstones of the efficiency of the methodology. In previous developed methods, this step was usually poorly addressed and up to now, no standardised method has been developed and described to select relevant and accurate criteria. Through the use of an electronic-based questionnaire to collect data about criteria from a large population of respondents, this study, based on the analysis of zoonoses and their impact in Southeast Asia, aimed at investigating an innovative approach to identify criteria that ensure a good differentiation between the diseases. The findings of this study highlighted that refining an initial list of criteria using multivariate analysis was a reliable approach to select clear, accurate and relevant criteria that allow a differentiation between diseases for a further prioritisation exercise. Furthermore, this study indicated that using an electronic-based questionnaire, carefully designed, might be an interesting alternative of expert opinion elicitation, for the collection of data. Finally, the results of this study opened to other new perspectives to develop and improve methods for the prioritisation of infectious diseases.

La surveillance a pour but principal de fournir en temps utile des informations pertinentes permettant de déclencher une alerte rapide en cas d'événement sanitaire, et d'informer rapidement les décideurs de façon à limiter la propagation de la maladie et à en atténuer l'impact. Ce guide pratique sur la surveillance est principalement à l'usage des Services vétérinaires ou des autres autorités compétentes, de leur personnel et des experts. Il leur permettra d'améliorer la conception, la mise en oeuvre et l'évaluation des systèmes de surveillance des maladies des animaux terrestres dans leur pays. Ce document reflète la contribution d'experts en méthodologie de la surveillance issus du monde entier. Il prend en compte la dynamique de la santé animale ainsi que la diversité des modes d'élevage et la variété des situations rencontrées dans les Pays membres de l'OIE. Il offre un cadre ouvert destiné à regrouper les approches de surveillance qui correspondent le mieux aux besoins au niveau des pays et au niveau international ; ce cadre devrait rester pertinent au fur et à mesure des évolutions de la surveillance en fonction des défis et des opportunités qui se présenteront. La réalisation des activités de surveillance, qu'elle soit événementielle ou programmée, repose sur des Services vétérinaires qui respectent les normes de l'OIE sur la qualité, ainsi que sur des partenariats public-privé efficaces entre les vétérinaires du secteur public et du secteur privé, les éleveurs, les chasseurs et les gardes des espaces protégés.

The first objective of this chapter is to review how climate change and climate variability may affect livestock diseases' occurrences while emphasizing how little the knowledge on the links between livestock diseases and climate change is. The review of the literature shows that most of the investigated diseases are zoonotic ones with few specific to livestock and, moreover, these diseases appeared to be dramatically affected by climate variability rather than by ongoing climate change. A second objective of this chapter is to introduce some new modelling tools that can help predict diseases' occurrences in space and in time in relation to climate variability and change, namely, environmental niche modelling, epidemiological modelling using R0 map and teleconnection modelling. A working example on cattle trypanosomiasis in China is given to illustrate teleconnection modelling by using data from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). The conclusion of this chapter stresses three points: the need to consider the entangled linkages between ecosystems, society and health of animals and humans; the need of elaborated scenarios of livestock diseases linked to climate change and variability, which necessitates to develop and improve the recording of livestock diseases; and the need to incorporate climate-mediated physiological responses into the programs that manage breeding genetic diversity.

El objetivo prioritario de la vigilancia es proporcionar en tiempo oportuno las informaciones necesarias para iniciar una alerta temprana en caso de acontecimiento zoosanitario e informar rápidamente a los responsables políticos de manera a reducir la propagación y mitigar el impacto de la enfermedad. Este manual práctico sobre vigilancia está destinado a ser utilizado principalmente por los Servicios Veterinarios u otras autoridades competentes, su personal y expertos, como herramienta para fortalecer el diseño, implementación y evaluación de los sistemas de vigilancia de las enfermedades de importancia para los animales terrestres en su país.

Several works have already looked at how the new biosecurity imperative has transformed public health policies. Although the new methods of preparing for health crises have been studied in relation to public health, in the field of animal disease management there has so far been little research to test the concept of biosecurity. To this end, this issue offers a three-dimensional approach. The first is a thematic orientation which concerns the central instrument of biosecurity policies in this era of zoonotic threat: the surveillance of animal disease. The second orientation is methodological; one needs to study surveillance practices “from the bottom up”. The third concerns the new forms of knowledge in relation to animal disease and the production and/or maintenance of ignorance. De nombreux travaux ont déjà porté sur la façon dont le nouvel impératif de biosécurité a transformé les politiques de santé publique. Si les nouvelles formes de préparation aux crises sanitaires ont bien été étudiées dans le domaine de la santé publique, en revanche, dans le domaine de la gestion des maladies animales, peu de travaux ont pour l’instant cherché à mettre à l’épreuve le concept de biosécurité. Face à ce constat, ce numéro propose une triple inflexion. La première concerne l’instrument central des politiques biosécuritaires : la surveillance des maladies animales. La seconde est méthodologique ; il s’agit d’étudier « par le bas » les pratiques de surveillance. La troisième concerne les formes de connaissances sur les maladies animales et la production et/ou le maintien d’ignorances. Un gran numero de trabajos ha analizado cómo el nuevo imperativo de bioseguridad transformó las políticas de salud pública. Si bien es cierto que las nuevas formas de preparación frente a una crisis humanitaria han sido estudiadas desde la perspectiva de la salud pública, existen pocos trabajos que les hayan cuestionado en la óptica de la gestión de las enfermedades animales. Éste número propone ante ello una inflexión triple. La primera es de orden temático y se focaliza en el instrumento central de las políticas de bioseguridad frente a la amenaza zoonótica: la vigilancia de enfermedades animales. La segunda orientación es metodológica: se necesita estudiar «desde abajo» las prácticas de vigilancia. La tercera se enfoca en las nuevas formas de conocimiento de las enfermedades animales y en la producción y/o mantenimiento de la ignorancia.

International audience; Animal welfare is an area which receives more and more attention from media, NGOs, consumers and politicians. In order to meet the expectations from the surrounding society, animal industries must meet the public concerns openly, demonstrate transparency, and show a continued focus on improving animal welfare conditions. Overall, WelFur is designed to fulfil three purposes: 1) Provide a reliable and feasible system for animal welfare assessment based on scientifically proven measures. 2) Create consumer transparency about animal welfare standards on European fur farms. 3) Work as a toolbox for the individual fur farmer to point out and improve any areas on the fur farm where welfare standards potentially can be improved. With that in mind, the European Fur Breeders’ Association started the WelFur project for fur farmed species (mink and fox) in 2009. The WelFur system is based on the methodology of the European Commission’s Welfare Quality® project, which is widely recognized as the world’s most comprehensive animal welfare assessment system. Animal welfare can be a difficult concept to pin down, and many people have their own personal views. Despite this, there is general agreement within the scientific community about what represents good animal welfare. This consensus has been expressed in the Five Freedoms which is a definition of ideal physical and mental states for animals. WelFur is largely inspired by the European Commission’s Welfare Quality® project that established four principles essential to safeguard and improve animal welfare: Good Housing, Good Feeding, Good Health and Appropriate Behaviour. These principles complement and build on the Five Freedoms. Within the principles Good Housing, Good Feeding, Good Health and Appropriate Behaviour, the Welfare Quality® project defined 12 specific animal welfare criteria. Below the 12 criteria are a number of welfare measurements which are species-specific and must consider the biology of the animal species. The specific welfare measurements for mink and fox have been chosen by the scientists behind their project for their scientific validity, reliability and feasibility. Representing 7 European universities and institutions, the scientists did an in-depth review of all existing animal welfare research on fur animals before they identified the welfare indicators and measurements that eventually became the WelFur protocols. Throughout the development of WelFur external scientific reviewers have conserved the quality of the scientific work and the alignment with the original Welfare Quality® project. The scoring of the welfare measurements have been accomplished with the support of INRA (French National Institute of Agronomic Research).

Along with the elephant and the wildbeest, the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is the most dominant species in terms of biomass but also the most widespread herbivore. It exhibits extreme morphological variability at large geographical scale, which has led to controversies about its taxonomic status. Nowadays, the African buffalo experience a severe reduction in population size and geographical distribution, as a result of human demographic expansion, overexploitation, habitat degradation and diseases. Using different kinds of markers on a large sampling set, we aimed to infer the genetic diversity and phylogeographic history of the African buffalo at the pan-African spatial distribution (N=766), as well as to assess the genetic health and the population structure of southern African Cape buffalo populations that face gene flow restriction (N=264). Analyses highlighted the existence of two distinct lineages at the continental scale: West and Central African populations (S.c. nanus, S.c. brachyceros, S.c. aequinoctialis) and East and Southern African populations (S.c. caffer). The two lineages likely expanded and diverged in the late to middle Pleistocene from an ancestral population located around the current-day Central African Republic. They probably adapted their morphology to colonize new habitats, hence developing the variety of ecophenotypes observed today. The finer scale axis- concentrated on southern Africa allowed identifying three genetic clusters. The splitting period suggests that the current pattern results from human-induced factors and/or from the aridification process that occurred during the Holocene. Lower differentiation estimates were observed between localities that experienced translocation over the last century. The two main clusters displayed high intra-cluster genetic diversity, low inter-cluster differentiation, and an absence of inbreeding depression signal, while the third one- a tiny population enclosed within an isolated protected area, experienced genetic drift. All those information are particularly essential within the context of conservation programs currently undertaken to restore genetic diversity of African buffalo populations. (Texte intégral)

Le changement climatique affecte l'écologie de la transmission d'un certain nombre d'agents de maladies infectieuses. L'environnement épidémiologique se modifie donc, mais comment ? Quelles pourraient en être les conséquences pour la santé des humains ? Celles-ci dépendront largement d'une part des conditions socio-économiques des populations, des systèmes de soins et de l'efficience des politiques de santé publique et d'autre part, des cadres juridique et éthique à construire à la jonction des questions de santé humaine, de santé animale et d'environnement.

Mastitis is an inflammatory disease of the mammary gland, generally of infectious origin,which causes huge economic losses in the milk production chain and can affect milk yield and quality. The capacity of the internal microbiota of the bovine udder (contained notably in foremilk) to exert a barrier effect with regard to pathogens has never been investigated so far. In this study, we evaluated composition of the bovine udder microbiota in relation to mastitis susceptibility. Udder microbiota was investigated in 31 quarters whose sanitary status ranged from healthy (i.e. no mastitis during the previous lactations) to susceptible to mastitis (i.e. one to several mastitis episodes during each of the previous lactations). Total bacterial DNA was extracted from foremilk sample and swab sample of the teat canal in each quarter. The 16S DNA was PCR-amplified and pyrosequenced. Phylobiome was analyzed using QIIME, and results were further treated using R, and LEfSe. Clustering of the samples based on their bacterial composition showed a link between udder microbiota and sanitary status. Healthy quarters showed a higher diversity compared to mastitis susceptible ones. Discriminant analysis of phylobiomes revealed dysbiosis in mastitis-susceptible quarters and allowed identification of taxonomic markers in relation to mastitis susceptibility. Healthy quarters were associated to a higher proportion of the Clostridia class, the Bacteroidetes phylum and the Bifidobacteriales order whereas mastitis-susceptible quarters showed a higher proportion of the Bacilli class (Staphylococcus) and Chlamydiia class. These results suggest that a diverse and balanced microbiota in the udder contributes to the mammary gland health, likely by exerting a barrier affect with regard to pathogens, as observed in other contexts (e.g.human gut). Mechanisms of interaction between this endogenous microbiota and the mammary gland deserve further investigations, which will help maintain a balanced mammary microbiota e.g. through the development of mammary probiotics.

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis est une espèce de pathogène intracellulaire facultatif, divisée en deux biovars : C. pseudotuberculosis ovis, agent étiologique de la lymphadénite caséeuse chez les petits ruminants, et C. pseudotuberculosis equi, responsable de lymphangites ulcéreuses chez les chevaux, de mammites chez les bovins et d’oedèmes cutanés chez les buffles. Des travaux antérieurs de caractérisation in silico du génome de C.pseudotuberculosis ont mis en évidence plusieurs gènes qui pourraient jouer un rôle important dans la physiologie et la virulence de cet agent pathogène. En complément de la génomique structurele, la génomique fonctionnelle a pour but d'élucider le rôle que joue chaque gène dans l'organisme, ainsi que l'interaction de ces gènes dans un réseau biologique. Au cours de ce travail de thèse, nous avons appliqué différentes stratégies protéomiques à l’étude fonctionnelle dugénome de C. pseudotuberculosis, afin de compléter ces données antérieures, obtenues in silico.Tout d'abord, nous avons caractérisé le protéome extracellulaire des souches 1002_ovis et C231_ovis qui a permis la caractérisation totale de 60 protéines différentes de C. pseudotuberculosis. En outre, 18 protéines ont été régulés différemment entre les deux souches.Dans une deuxième étude, le protéome de la souche 1002_ovis été analysé en réponse au stress nitrosant. Au total, 835 protéines ont été identifiées, ce qui représente environ 41% du génome prédit de cette souche. Parmi elle, 58 protéines différentiellement régulées ont été identifiées et sont impliquées dans différents processus biologiques susceptibles de favoriser la survie de cet agent pathogène en présence d'un stress nitrosant. Dans une troisième étude, les souches 1002_ovis (représentative du biovar ovis) et 258_equi (biovar equi) ont été utilisées pour induire des infections expérimentales sur modèle souris. Les protéomes extracellulaires des deux souches ont été analysés avant et après passage en série sur l’hôte murin. L’analyse en protéomique comparative a permis d’identifier 250 protéines différentiellement régulées dont les fonctions touchent aux systèmes de transport, à la désintoxication, la virulence, l'adhérence cellulaire et la réponse générale au stressPour conclure, à travers différentes stratégies protéomiques, ce travail a permis de générer une base de données de protéines et de valider la fonctionnalité de différents gènes jusqu’alors prédits in silico, seulement. En outre, ce travail constitue la première étude protéomique comparative des souches de biovars ovis et equi. L’ensemble de ces résultats fournit des informations importantes sur les facteurs qui favorisent les processus physiologiques et infectieux de C. pseudotuberculosis., Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is a facultative intracellular pathogenic species, subdivided into two biovars: C. pseudotuberculosis ovis, etiologic agent of caseous lymphadenitis in small ruminants, and C. pseudotuberculosis equi, which causes ulcerative lymphangitis in equines, mastitis in bovine, and oedematous skin disease in buffalos. In silico analysis of the genome of C. pseudotuberculosis revealed genes that can play an important role in both physiology and virulence of this pathogen. As a complement to structural genomics, functional genomics aims to elucidate the role that each gene plays in organism, as well as interaction of these genes into a biological network. Thus, in this PhD work, we used different proteomic approaches to evaluate the functional genome of C. pseudotuberculosis at the protein level to complement these previous in silico studies. First, the analysis of the exoproteome of strains 1002_ovis and C231_ovis, enable the characterization total of 60 proteins of C.pseudotuberculosis. In addition, 18 differentially regulated were detected between the two strains. In a second study, the proteome of the strain 1002_ovis was evaluated in response to nitrosative stress, a stress encountered by the bacteria during the onset of the infection. A total of 845 proteins were analyzed, representing approximately 41% of the predicted proteome of this strain. A set of 58 proteins were found differentially regulated when compared to the control conditions. These 58 proteins are involved in different biological processes, and their induction may favor the survival of this pathogen under exposition to nitrosative stress. In a third study, the strains 1002_ovis and 258_equi, which represent the biovars ovis and equi of C. pseudotuberculosis, respectively, were used in a murine model of experimental infection. A comparative analysis of their extracellular proteomes before and after passage in the murine host revealed that 250 proteins were differentially regulated in C. pseudotuberculosis. These proteins are involved in transport pathways, virulence, cell adhesion and stress general response. Altogether, this PhD work allowed the generation of a protein data base, as well as the validation of several genes previously predicted in silico. In addition, this work reports the first comparative proteomic study of the biovars ovis and equi of C. pseudotuberculosis. The results generated in this study provide information about of factors that favor the physiology, virulence and pathogenesis of C. pseudotuberculosis.

La cétose chez la vache laitière et la toxémie de gestation chez la chèvre sont les principales maladies rencontrées en peripartum, elles sont responsables d’importantes pertes économiques. Ces troubles résultent d’un fort déficit énergétique et d’une demande accrue en glucose. Ils se caractérisent par un dérèglement hépatique, une perte de l’appétit et une diminution de la production laitière (Dann et al., 2005). Pour limiter la prévalence et les impacts économiques des cétoses en élevage de ruminants, le centre R&D du groupe Roullier a sélectionné un coproduit naturel issu de l’industrie agroalimentaire, l’OX23P®, pour ses propriétés hépatoprotectrices. L’objectif de ce travail a été d’évaluer l’efficacité de ce produit sur le fonctionnement hépatique et sur les performances des chèvres laitières atteintes par une toxémie de gestation subclinique expérimentalement induite.

Animal health and productivity gains reduce livestock impact on climate change. Productivity gains allow an increase in animal production with fewer animals, less greenhouse gas emissions and less pressure of livestock on soils. Proper control of animal diseases is a prerequisite essential for improving livestock productivity. All over the world, strengthening the fight against animal diseases would greatly reduce the environmental impacts of livestock productions. However, in the poorest countries, where animal diseases are an obstacle to the improvement of productivity and where, by promoting extensive growth of livestock and by killing many animals, animal diseases are responsible for a huge waste of environmental resources, the improvement of animal health has the most beneficial effects on the well-being of people and on the preservation of the planet. Because of their importance, the interactions between animal health and the environment should be better studied and better addressed by public policies., Des gains de productivité permettent une augmentation des productions animales avec moins d’animaux, moins d’émissions de gaz à effet de serre et avec une réduction de la pression de l’élevage sur les sols. Un bon contrôle des maladies animales est un préalable indispensable à l’amélioration de la productivité. Partout dans le monde, un renforcement de la lutte contre les maladies animales permettrait une forte réduction des impacts environnementaux de l’élevage. Toutefois, c’est dans les pays les plus pauvres, où les maladies animales sont un obstacle à l’amélioration de la productivité et où, en favorisant une croissance extensive de l’élevage et en tuant un grand nombre d’animaux, elles sont responsables d’un énorme gaspillage de ressources environnementales, que l’amélioration de la santé animale a les effets les plus favorables pour le bien-être des populations et pour la préservation de la planète. En raison de leur importance, les interactions entre la santé animale et l’environnement mériteraient d’être mieux étudiées et mieux prises en compte par les politiques publiques., Pradère Jean-Paul. Santé animale et gains de productivité réduisent l’impact de l’élevage sur le changement climatique. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 168 n°2, 2015. pp. 123-132.

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive bacterium responsible for a wide range of infections. Host cell cycle alteration is a sophisticated mechanism used by pathogens to hijack the defense functions of host cells. We previously demonstrated that S. aureus MW2 (USA400) bacteria induced a G2/M phase transition delay in HeLa cells. We demonstrate here that this activity is triggered by culture supernatant compounds. Using size exclusion chromatography of the MW2 supernatant, followed by mass spectroscopy analysis of corresponding peaks, we identified phenol-soluble modulin α (PSMα) peptides as the likely candidates for this effect. Indeed, synthetic PSMα1 and PSMα3 caused a G2/M phase transition delay. The implication of PSMα in cell cycle alteration was confirmed by comparison of S. aureus Los Angeles County clone (LAC) wild-type with the isogenic mutant LAC∆psmα, which lacks the psmα operon encoding PSMα1–4. PSMα-induced G2/M transition delay correlated with a decrease in the defensin genes expression suggesting a diminution of antibacterial functions of epithelial cells. By testing the supernatant of S. aureus human clinical isolates, we found that the degree of G2/M phase transition delay correlated with PSMα1 production. We show that PSMs secreted by S. aureus alter the host cell cycle, revealing a newly identified mechanism for fostering an infection.—Deplanche, M., Filho. R. A. E.–A., Alekseeva, L., Ladier, E., Jardin, J., Henry, G., Azevedo, V., Miyoshi, A., Beraud, L., Laurent, F., Lina, G., Vandenesch, F., Steghens, J.-P., Le Loir, Y., Otto, M., Götz, F., Berkova, N. Phenol-soluble modulin α induces G2/M phase transition delay in eukaryotic HeLa cells.

Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne viral zoonosis which affects humans and a wide range of domestic and wild ruminants. The large spread of RVF in Africa and its potential to emerge beyond its geographic range requires the development of surveillance strategies to promptly detect the disease outbreaks in order to implement efficient control measures, which could prevent the widespread of the virus to humans. The Animal Health Mediterranean Network (REMESA) linking some Northern African countries as Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia with Southern European ones as France, Italy, Portugal and Spain aims at improving the animal health in the Western Mediterranean Region since 2009. In this context, a first assessment of the diagnostic capacities of the laboratories involved in the RVF surveillance was performed. The first proficiency testing (external quality assessment- EQA) for the detection of the viral genome and antibodies of RVF virus (RVFV) was carried out from October 2013 to February 2014. Ten laboratories participated from 6 different countries (4 from North Africa and 2 from Europe). Six laboratories participated in the ring trial for both viral RNA and antibodies detection methods, while four laboratories participated exclusively in the antibodies detection ring trial. For the EQA targeting the viral RNA detection methods 5 out of 6 laboratories reported 100% of correct results. One laboratory misidentified 2 positive samples as negative and 3 positive samples as doubtful indicating a need for corrective actions. For the EQA targeting IgG and IgM antibodies methods 9 out of the 10 laboratories reported 100% of correct results, whilst one laboratory reported all correct results except one false-positive. These two ring trials provide evidence that most of the participating laboratories are capable to detect RVF antibodies and viral RNA thus recognizing RVF infection in affected ruminants with the diagnostic methods currently available. © 2015 Monaco et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Pour lutter contre la toxoplasmose chez les ovins, des chercheurs de l’INRA, de l’Université de Tours et de la Faculté de Médecine de Lille ont développé une nouvelle approche vaccinale, utilisant des nanoparticules d’amidon et une administration par voie muqueuse. Cette approche ouvre de nouvelles perspectives vers des vaccins plus sûrs et plus efficaces.

Les maladies transmises par des insectes vecteurs ont un impact majeur sur la santé humaine et animale, mais également sur l'économie des sociétés. De par leurs modes de transmission, ces maladies, qu'elles soient zoonotiques ou non, sont particulièrement sensibles aux changements climatiques. En etfet, le climat et ses variations déterminent, et ce de manière parfois prépondérante, la présence des vecteurs à un endroit donné, mais également la densité et la capacité de ces derniers à transmettre les maladies. Le climat influe également sur la présence et la densité des animaux et des hommes, ainsi que sur les capacités de survie d'un pathogène dans un milieu donné. Ainsi, l'ensemble des acteurs, conditions et processus nécessaires à la transmission de ces maladies forme un système complexe et dynamique dont le comportement, sous influence du climat mais également d'autres variables environnementales, déterminera la possibilité ou non d'une transmission. Pour mieux comprendre les processus biologiques en jeu et mesurer l'impact des paramètres climatiques sur ces processus, des études expérimentales et épidémiologiques sont réalisées, en laboratoire ou en condition naturelle. La modélisation mathématique est utilisée pour représenter ces systèmes et en simuler le comportement sous ditférelltes conditions environnementales. C'est un outil majeur qui permet non seulement de mieux comprendre les phénomènes biologiques impliqués dans la transmission d'un pathogène donné, mais aussi de simuler, sur un pas de temps plus ou moins long, révolution dans r espace et le temps de l'intensité de cette transmission, et donc d'adapter la lutte contre ces maladies.

Breeding intact boars is a promising alternative to the surgical castration of piglets. Genetic selection should make it possible to solve problems due to boar taint and aggressiveness. About 1600 Pietrain type (purebred) or Pietrain x Large White type (crossbred) boars were raised in a testing station. Blood samples were collected for measuring two sex hormones (testosterone, estradiol), and indicators of the inflammatory status (C‐reactive protein: CRP, Pig Major Acute‐Phase Protein: pigMAP, blood formula). Animals were slaughtered nine days later, measured for boar taint compounds (androstenone, skatole) and skin lesions on carcass, an indicator of aggressiveness. For both genetic types, heritability was moderate for sex hormones (from 0.17 to 0.29) and skatole (purebred: 0.24, crossbred: 0.37), and high for androstenone (0.63 and 0.70). Genetic correlations between sex hormones and boar taint compounds were moderate to high (from 0.31 to 0.95). Heritability was moderate for CRP (0.24 and 0.46) and very low for pigMAP (0.06 and 0.05). Numbers of leucocytes had moderate to high heritabilities according to the genetic type (0.21 and 0.52). Heritability of skin lesions was moderate for both genetic types (0.31). Genetic correlations were negative between sex hormones and inflammatory measures (from ‐0.46 to ‐0.05), positive between testosterone and number of lesions (0.43 and 0.53), and low between androstenone and lesions (‐0.06 and ‐0.17). Therefore, it would be possible to select boars on their concentration in plasma sex hormones to decrease boar taint and aggressiveness, without important consequences on the inflammatory system.

International audience

Health preservation is one of the main priorities and a constant challenge for livestock production. Medication based on antibiotics have been used systematically and preventively to limit the negative consequences of poor health status. The reduction of their utilization is a challenge for the development of sustainable livestock production systems, which requires that health and performance could be maintained to limit the environmental impact and to improve the animal welfare. The role of nutrition is clearly questioned because it may be one of the solutions that contribute to limit medication through preserving health and performance. Indeed, health and nutrition are strongly connected. First, because health disturbances impact on the different components of nutrition functions, i.e. feed intake, digestion, and metabolism; and second, because nutrition determines the organism’s ability to maintain or to restore homeostasis in response to health disturbances. Feeding practices like a moderate and transient feed restriction are commonly applied to limit gut disorders in young animals. Diet formulation can also be adapted to include raw materials acting at the gut level to stimulate digestive processes and select microflora. The feed has to supply nutrients adequately to support all the physiological functions, this means that nutrient deficiencies need to be identified and corrected. Additionally, specific nutrients are known to enhance body defenses. Those nutrients, when identified, could be supplied in the feed through adjustments of the feed formulation. The question is whether and how feed formulation and dietary nutrient supplies could be adapted to preserve both health and performance. A major limitation remains to determine quite early the situations during which an adaptation of feed could be relevant and efficient for preserving health and performance. Tools developed for precision livestock farming and precise feeding will be useful for the detection of health problems at an early stage making possible such adjustments of feeding practices.

This chapter reviews recent data upon the potential of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to improve animal productions, and animal health and well-being. The most important expected benefits of probiotic LAB are growth-promoting effects through better feed utilization and digestion, and biological control of pathogen colonization. They are also used to enhance milk and egg production. According to their functions and properties, additives for animal feed are classified in one or several categories including technological, sensorial, nutritional, or zootechnical additives. In Europe, the authorization of microorganisms used as zootechnical additives for feed is subjected to strict regulation. The chapter addresses the main animal production sectors, their specificities in terms of the production types (meat, milk, egg), the ecosystems to be considered (gut, vaginal, and/or mammary) and presence of LAB therein, the main diseases encountered, and the use of probiotics to prevent these diseases or enhance productivity.