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Partner 6: P6
Participating Institution: National Laboratory on rabies and wildlife diseases research
(Agence Franaise de Sécurité Sanitaire et Alimentaire, AFSSA), Nancy, France
Research Laboratory: AFSSA Nancy laboratory
Principal Scientist: Dr Florence Cliquet
Scientific Team: Dr. Florence Cliquet, PhD (in immunology) is highly experienced in rabies vaccinology and in oral vaccination programmes. She is the director of the laboratory (around 50 persons).
Dr. Jacques Barrat, DMV, is the head of rabies diagnosis and of all experimental trials on animals. He is highly experienced in virology.
Dr. Evelyne Picard, PhD, is co-head of rabies diagnosis and responsible of the network surveillance of bats in France. She is molecular biologist.
Dr. Franck Boué, PhD, is the head of laboratory section and is mainly involved in the program of development of a contraceptive vaccine for dog populations.
Role and contribution:
To Collaborate in WP4 (KAP surveys of the socio-cultural perception of rabies by the population and for collection of key parameters of dog ecology),
to participate to serological investigations of bats sampled in the field,
to perform RNA extractions from terrestrial animal brains collected in Morocco, RT-PCR studies, immunofluorescence, cell culture and mouse inoculation tests,
to perform sequencing in the nucleoprotein and glycoprotein genes of domestic and wild animals,
to perform phylogenetic analysis of sequences from the wild and domestic terrestrial animals by using the neighbour joining method or maximum liked hood approach,
Qualifications and experience:
The AFSSA Nancy laboratory is the national reference institute mandated by the Ministry of Agriculture for monitoring the epidemiosurveillance of rabies on domestic and wild animals (particularly for performing the diagnosis and the serological investigations).
This laboratory is a WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Management in Zoonoses Control, an OIE reference laboratory for rabies and the Community Reference Institute for rabies serology. The experience in rabies field is existing since more than 30 years ; the main goal to achieve for the laboratory was the elimination of vulpine rabies by coordinating, organising and performing from 1988 until 2003 all oral vaccination campaigns by helicopter ; specific adapted laboratory tools have been developed for assessing the immunological effects of these programmes in different areas of virology and immunology sectors as well as methods for studying fox populations and their regulation. As an example, the laboratory has developed the straw sampling technique to facilitate the sampling on dead animals for diagnosis analysis ; two different serological techniques have been developed, an ELISA adapted for rabies antibody titration from fox field sera and an adaptation of the RFFIT (the FAVN test) for specific detection of rabies neutralising antibodies in domestic carnivores. Since several years molecular tools have been developed to characterise the different genotypes of lyssaviruses received in the laboratory and to study on a national level the circulating bat lyssaviruses (genotype 5 Ð EBL1a and EBL1b).
The laboratory, in close collaboration with national bats ecologists, is involved in organisation and participation to field studies on bats colonies and samplings of biological material for further analysis before releasing of animals.
The laboratory was highly involved some years ago on a long term project with Tunisia to assess efficacy of both parenteral and oral vaccination in sub-urban dog populations and has collaboration with several partners of this project in particular with Morocco. Therefore, the laboratory is experienced in questions related to rabies in canine reservoir.
The laboratory is strongly experienced in validation and standardisation of laboratory techniques, mainly for the diagnosis and serology and currently organise workshops and inter-laboratory tests.
Since several years, the laboratory is involved in a research program aiming to develop an immunocontraceptive vaccine in canine species as an additional mean to control rabies by biologically reducing the turn-over of the populations.
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