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Training Workshop - Basic medical entomology

Trainers; V. Versteirt and F. Schaffner from AVIA-GIS (Belgium).

5 young medical entomologists from Guadeloupe attended the workshop: Pasteur Institute (2), Mosquito Control Agency (1) and CIRAD Animal Health Research Unit (2).

The first day was open to larger audience (other research institutes in Guadeloupe, public health agency, veterinary administration, Guadeloupe region…), and one representative of Guadeloupe Region, of the Ministry of Research and of DAAF attended the opening. It aimed at divulgating science of mosquito study, and communicating on its importance and applications in surveillance and disease control. This session was much appreciated and received very positive comments, encouraging the team to organize “la fête de la science” on the theme of mosquitoes.

The rest of the training workshop included presentations (introductive lessons on vector biology, taxonomy and surveillance), field mosquito collection and laboratory sessions for morphological identification of specimens (larvae, adults) collected in the field and use of diagnostic key.

The training was the opportunity to update all participants on the research being conducted on the field of medical entomology within the frame of the Epigenesis project, and to share existing documents between organizations, especially the draft morphological key that was started at the Mosquito Control agency of Guadeloupe (ARS).

See programme

Date: 
Monday, 30 June, 2014 - 08:00 to Friday, 4 July, 2014 - 17:00

Training workshop - Modeling of biological systems

Applications to population dynamics and animal epidemiology

Venue: CIRAD, Domaine de Duclos, Guadeloupe.

Trainer: Pauline Ezanno, (Oniris/Inra Nantes)

The invitation was extended to several research institutes in Guadeloupe (University of Antilles Guyane, INRA, Pasteur Institute, other CIRAD research teams, ARS, DAAF, ORSAG…).

In all, 6 young epidemiologists participated in the training from INRA (1), CIRAD plant health research (1) and from CIRAD Animal health research team (4).

The training aimed at introducing modeling of biological systems (mosquito population, simple epidemic models and dynamics of Vector-borne Diseases) for evaluation of population and epidemic dynamics and assessment of model behavior when parameters changed, including control strategies. Sessions were dedicated to computerized exercises to get trained on open source modeling software (Scilab, version 5.3.1).

See programme

Date: 
Monday, 21 July, 2014 - 08:00 to Wednesday, 23 July, 2014 - 17:00

Training Workshop - Proteomics and its application

Differential proteomic analysis by bidimensional electrophoresis (2D-DIGE)

Trainers: Isabel Marcelino (CIRAD, Guadeloupe), André Bluze (GE HealthCare, France), Bruno Bacher (GE Healthcare, Allemagne)

The invitation was extended to all research institutes in Guadeloupe. In all, 12 participated in the workshop from Université Antilles Guyane (3), Institut Pasteur de Guadeloupe (1), INSERM (1) and CIRAD Animal health research team (3 laboratory technologists and 1 researchers) as well as the 2 foreign trainers from GE HealthCare.

The first morning was open to a larger audience and was delivered under a format of a seminar which was attended by more participants. The seminar presented several approaches and applications in the field of proteomics and the workshop will be specifically on setting-up a 2D-DIGE experiment.

The workshop enabled to publicize the newly acquired proteomic equipment.

More information (in French)

Programme (in French)

Date: 
Monday, 2 March, 2015 - 09:30 to Friday, 6 March, 2015 - 17:00

Training - Use of the sequencing machine

Date: 
Monday, 22 September, 2014 - 09:30 to Monday, 29 September, 2014 - 17:00

3rd Global Conference on Entomology

The 3rd edition of that conference will be organized at Galadari Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The abstract entitled "Tracking the way to identify West Nile Vectors in the Caribbean" has been accepted for oral presentation

More information on the Conference, visit the Conference website

See Abstract submitted

Date: 
Monday, 2 November, 2015 - 08:00 to Wednesday, 4 November, 2015 - 17:00

Fete de la Science

Date: 
Wednesday, 7 October, 2015 - 08:00 to Sunday, 11 October, 2015 - 17:00

Epigenesis/CaribVET Round Tables

Following the Epigenesis Steering Committee meeting, the meetings of the scientific and innovation and transfert technology committees on April 20th, the regional Conference on Research and surveillance conducted in the Caribbean and the 10th CaribVET SC meeting, Round-Tables were organised with all partners of the Epigenesis Project and the members of the CaribVET Steering Committee, in order to strengthen the benefits of the project for the region, most particularly better define the work plan and topics to be addressed by the post-doc research project which were elaborated based on the gaps evidenced in the region in spatial epidemioloy and economics.

Presentations and outcomes of the Round tables are accessible on the CaribVET Website

Date: 
Thursday, 23 April, 2015 - 09:00 to 13:00

10th CaribVET Steering Committee Meeting

The Caribbean Animal Health Network has held its 10th Steering Committee Meeting in conjunction with the 2nd Steering Committee Meeting of the Epigenesis Project.

For the first time, all technical and scientific presentations of the network were presented during the first Regional Conference on research and surveillance in Animal Health (1 day) together with presentations dealing with research conducted in Guadeloupe on priority diseases for the region.

All other presentations and discussions dealing with Network sustainability, strategical discussins, and achievements/recommendations of working groups were made during the CaribVET Steering Committe (1 day). One of the main topic discussed was the proactive programme of CaribVET for the Caribbean preparedness to the Avian Influenza threat

More information and presentations of the 10th CaribVET SC meeting are available on the CaribVET Website.

Date: 
Wednesday, 22 April, 2015 - 08:30 to 18:30

Epigenesis Parallel Session "Animal Health in the Caribbean", ESVV Conference

A special Session dedicated to Animal Health in the Caribbean will be organized during the ESVV Conference in Montpellier. The session will be chaired by the Epigenesis Project coordinator and head of the Carribean Centre of Research and surveillance for animal and zoonotic infectious diseases (CIRAD, Guadeloupe) and Dr. Cedric Lazarus, Livestock Development officer (FAO, Barbados).

Several Key note speakers from the Caribbean and members of the Caribbean Animal Health network (CaribVET) will present on various topics: orbiviruses, Classical Swine Fever, Swine Influenza, Porcine Encephalomyelitis Techovirus, Rabies, West Nile virus, Avian Influenza and other avian diseases and porcine respiratory diseases of poultry.

More information on the programme of the Epigenesis Parallel session

Presentations and abstracts will be made available on the Epigenesis website after the conference (Conference section).

 

Date: 
Wednesday, 2 September, 2015 - 15:00 to 18:30

10th International Congress on Veterinary Virology (ESVV), Montpellier, France

The Xth International Congress of Veterinary Virology (ESVV) will be held in Montpellier, France in the Congress Center “Le Corum”, located at the border between the old and new city. The ESVV2015 Conference will include a joint meeting with the 9th Annual Meeting of EPIZONE, the Network of Excellence for Epizootic disease diagnostic and control. The conference is organized by CIRAD.

Scientific topics covered at this edition will include enzootic, emerging and zoonotic viruses, evolution and genomics, diagnosis, viral immunology, vaccines, antivirals, epidemiology and risk assessment and modeling. The Conference will emphase on multidisciplinary approaches which are developped in research on virology. 9 worlwide recognized key note speakers are invited to participate and debate on the mains topics listed as well as on structural virology, virus evolution, cutting edge diagnosis, emerging viruses.

The scientific programme includes 111 oral presentations (61 is the SEVV Conference, 41 for Epizone and 9 for the Epigenesis Session), 157 posters. More than 380 participants of 49 countries are expected.

The EU/FP/Regpot Epigeensis project is one of the main sponsor of the conference. An Epigenesis parallel session on "Animal Health in the Caribbean" will be organized on the third day of the conference.

More information the programme

Download detailed programme of oral presentations here

Date: 
Monday, 31 August, 2015 - 12:45 to Thursday, 3 September, 2015 - 18:00

9th Summer School “Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine”

This Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine (MSBM) Summer School aimed at teaching and discussing current best practices and knowledge in Mass Spectrometry  (MS) to  advanced  graduate  students,  post-docs  and  scientists  in  the  area  of biochemistry, biology, molecular biology, biotechnology and medicine. The program was packed with a mixture of cutting-edge research and emerging topics and it also included didactic lectures.

It was organized in Dubrovnick, Croatia. The scientific presentation included several topics such as Electrochemical and Microfluidic Aspects of Ionization Methods (Hubert Girault), Introduction to Glycomics (Jasna Peter-Katalinic), Top-down proteomics and infectious diseases (Julia Chamot-Rooke), Native Mass Spectrometry: History and How (Joseph Loo) and The Basics and Applications of Imaging Mass Spectrometry (Ron Heeren).

The following didactic lectures were presented:

    •  Introduction to biological molecules - structure/function review of: lipids, glycol-lipids, carbohydrates, peptides/proteins, DNA/RNA

    •  Fundamentals of mass spectra: base peak, resolution calculations, ppm calculations etc.

    •  Ionization fundamentals (MALDI and ESI)

    •  Mass analyzers: quads, traps, TOF, ICR, combos

    •  Separation strategies: LC, CE, HILIC, fractionation (e.g. SDS-PAGE and TLC)

    •  Fragmentation mechanisms: high and low energy CID, ECD/ETD, IRMPD

    •  Interpretation of peptide tandem mass spectra including basics of database search

    •  Quantitative analysis - relative and absolute

The course was attended by approx. 55 persons from different instritutions and countries over Europe. To promote the interactions between participants and lecturers/organizers, a poster session was organized and a series of exercises were given to the participants in order for us to solve them during the course.

Dr. Isabel Marcelino, microbiologist specialized in proteomics and recruited on the Epigenesis project participated in the MSBM summer school to know what is currently being done in the field of MS but most importantly to discuss with top scientists on this domains to deepen knowledge on some techniques, applications and evolution of those techniques in several domains. She also presented a poster "Developing new methods for PTM mapping of Ehrlichi ruminantium proteins".

More information on this summer school, access presentations: visit the MSBM website

Date: 
Monday, 6 July, 2015 - 09:00 to Saturday, 11 July, 2015 - 18:00

Meetings for preparation of the joint ESVV/Epizone Congress

Three meetings were organized in Montpellier for the preparation of the joint Congresses to be organized week of 31st August 2015: 

  • the Xth International Congress of the European Society of Veterinary Virology (ESVV)
  • the 9th Annual meeting of the EPIZONE, the Network of Excellence for Epizootic Diseases Diagnostic and Control

More specifically, the meeting intended to organize: abstract management and preparation of the conference proceedings; review conference facilities and work out final logistical details; finalize the organization of the congress; adapt the workplan for the last 2 months revising all tasks and responsibilities assisgned to each person from CIRAD involved in the organizing committe; and to prepare the Epigenesis parallel session which will be dedicated to Animal Health in the Caribbean.

Other related articles

Date: 
Monday, 29 June, 2015 - 12:45 to Thursday, 9 July, 2015 - 12:00

Pathobiome congress, Paris

The Pathobiome Conference dedicated to "pathogens in microbiotas in hosts", was organized in Paris, at the French national veterinary School of Maisons Alfort (ENVA).

Participation in this congress was of particular interest given the activities carried out within the EPIGENESIS project. Cutting edge presentations were made, revisiting the concept of “one pathogen – one disease”. It is now clear that the microbial environment is influencing the incidence of pathogen infection on the hosts. This is particularly important for vectorial diseases since the microbiotas may play a role in competence (transmission of pathogens) and disease evolution (co-infections). In addition, important information and contacts were achieved to increase our expertise and capacities on bioinformatics for operating the high throughput sequencing platform acquired whithin the framework of the EPIGENESIS project: thus, bioinformatics pipelines developed by other groups (including CIRAD-Montpellier groups) will be implemented on the CIRAD Duclos server in collaboration with the bioinformatics persons of company supplyer of our equipment.

The scientific outcomes definitely will be used to help the research team to define a strategy to implement bio-informatics tools to be used with the sequencing platform acquired in Guadeloupe throught the epigenesis project.

More information:

 

Date: 
Wednesday, 24 June, 2015 - 08:30 to Friday, 26 June, 2015 - 18:00

First symposium on Health Modelling, Guadeloupe

A modelling symposium was organized by CIRAD (BGPI research team in Guadeloupe) and University of Antilles in Guadeloupe (LAMIA research unit) on risk modeling in epidemiology. About fourty persons participated, mainly from Guadeloupe and France. Four sessions were organized on the Campus of Fouillole (University of Guadeloupe):

  • Statistical and numerical methods
  • Risks in animal health
  • Risks in plant health
  • Risks in human health

Several researchers from CIRAD CMAEE Research unit participated in the symposium and presented their work:

  1. Wy is living together so difficult? The romantic tragedy of two Amblyomma species in Mozambique (David Pleydel)
  2. Species distributin modelling for rhipicephalus microplus in Benin, West Africa: comparin datasets and modellin algorithms (Eva De Clercq)
  3. Movement restrictions to control the disease transmission in a livestock network and the effect of farmers strategic behavior (Damian Tago).

The session was introduced with a key note presentation from Michel Langlais (emerit professor at the Univeristy Victor Segalen, Bordeau2): a singular reaction-diffusion system modelling prey-predator interactions: invasion and co-extinction waves.

It was the first symposium on health modelling organized in Guadeloupe. The goal was to unite local and national experts in epidemiological modelling from plant, animal and human heath to trigger exchanges and emphasize cross-cutting methodology.

More information: 

- Workshop: Programme

- News on the CIRAD antilles Guyane Website

 

Date: 
Tuesday, 19 May, 2015 - 12:00 to Wednesday, 20 May, 2015 - 17:00

Avian Influenza Workshop, Barbados - Regional preparedness

CaribVET members, poultry farmers and members of the Caribbean Poultry Association, international organizations like FAO, researchers from the Caribbean region (CIRAD, CENSA) and international experts from USDA-APHIS met in Barbados to address Avian influenza threat for the region.

Dr. Eva De Clercq participated in the workshop to further develop the Caribbean Veterinary Information System (C-VIS) with the Caribbean partners, following the outcomes and decisions of the CaribVET/Epigenesis Round Tables organized in April 2015, in Guadeloupe.

Specific objectives related to this project were to:

  1. Fine-tune the questionnaires for data collection for planning Avian Influenza surveillance and follow up of potential outbreaks in the region, looking for harmonization of terms ;
  2. Fine-tune the Confidentiality agreements for data sharing as well as CaribVET Declaration of Interest to use C-VIS
  3. Advocate the use of standardized data collection methods and centralized data storage.

All the objectives were reached and the Epigroup fine-tuned questionnaires/E-forms, the CaribVET confidentiality agreement and DOI. The members also discussed the programme of the regional training workshop on the use of C-VIS for Avian Influenza risk mapping in the countries.

The workshop participants recommended to use and adopt the C-VIS tools to enhance Avian Diseases surveillance in the Caribbean countries and ease harmonization of data collection to further enable data analysis at the regional level.

An updated version of the online questionnaire was distributed to the workshop participants on 10/07/2015. Feedback on the online version will be collected in August so that the forms and platform is ready for pilot testing in September. Further development of the GIS platform and its adoption remains an ongoing process. A regional workshop on the use of new surveillance tools is planned to help veterinary services to use those tools end of October (date and venue to be confirmed).

 

More information:

Date: 
Sunday, 5 July, 2015 - 08:15 to Thursday, 9 July, 2015 - 12:00

Second International workshop on Temporal analysis of satellite images

Dr. Eva De Clercq, a spatial epidemiologist recruited as a post-doc researcher at CIRAD, participated in the 2nd International Workshop on Temporal Analysis of Satellite Images, which was organized along with the 35th Symposium of EARSeL. EARSeL is a scientific network of European remote sensing laboratories, coming from both academia and commercial/industrial sector, which covers all fields of geoinformation and earth observation through remote sensing.

The workshop intends to be forum for discussion of research issues related to temporal analysis of remotely sensed data.  Since the launch of Landsat-1 in 1972, a large number of earth observation satellites have been launched.  The wealth of multitemporal data provides excellent opportunities to study environmental changes at local, regional and global scale. The workshop includes a wide arrays of topics such as:
•    Multitemporal image calibration and correction
•    Landsat, NOAA AVHRR, MODIS, MERIS, SPOT VGT Data Archive
•    Multitemporal SAR and InSAR data analysis
•    Cross-sensor satellite data - data fusion
•    Methodology for analysis of temporal data
•    Change detection methods
•    Landuse and land cover dynamics
•    Vegetation dynamics,ecological processes and environmental impact
•    Applications of multitemporal data

Eva De Clercq presented a poster on Mapping mosquito habitat in Guadeloupe (French West Indies) using high and medium resolution imagery. See Abstract

More information on EARSel: visit the Association website, or the conference website.

More information on the International Workshop on Temporal analysis of satellite images.

Date: 
Wednesday, 17 June, 2015 - 08:00 to Wednesday, 19 August, 2015 - 17:00

Economic study on CaribVET was presented at the 31st West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference

The conference is organized by the Caribbean Agro-Economic Society, with the participation of economists and researchers mostly from the Caribbean.

CaribVET was represented at the Conference wi tht following oral presentation: "Towards a regional approach for animal health services provision and disaster risk reduction (DRR): The economics of the Caribbean Animal Health Network" presented by Damian Tago, economist at CIRAD recruited for a 18 month post-doc within the framework of the EU/Regpot/Epigenesis project.

The objective was to introduce CaribVET to the Caribbean community of economists. This was an opportunity to:

  1. Make know the work undertaken in the Caribbean in animal health among the agricultural economists in the region
  2. Get feedback regarding the economic model that describes the benefits of CaribVET as a regional approach for the provision of animal health services and disaster risk reduction.
  3. Identify potential collaborators in economy in the region

Access the Programme of the conference here

More information on the Conference: visit Conference website

View presentation and Extended abstract submitted

 

 

 

 

Date: 
Sunday, 9 August, 2015 - 08:30 to Friday, 14 August, 2015 - 18:00

1st regional conference on research and surveillance on animal and zoonotic infectious diseases in the Caribbean

One hundred and nine persons from 34 countries of Europe, America and Africa participate to the regional conference held in Guadeloupe on the 21st of April 2015. EPIGENESIS European partners, Caribbean partners (members of CaribVET network), Guadeloupean partners and research experts from other countries were invited to the first regional conference on research and surveillance on animal and zoonotic infectious diseases in the Caribbean.

Participants were:

  • Chief Veterinary officers representatives from 25 Caribbean countries
  • Representatives from CARICOM Secretariat and representatives of regional and international organizations (OIE, FAO, IICA, PAHO, USDA)
  • Research institutes (CIRAD Guadeloupe, CIRAD France, CENSA Cuba)
  • Universities: University of the West Indies (Trinidad), University of Guyana (Saint Georges), Ross University, University of Mozambique
  • Professional organizations (Caribbean Poultry Association, Belize Poultry Association, Jamaica Broilers)
  • Representative of the French Ministry of Agriculture, of Guadeloupe region and of the Secretariat Technique Commun (Interreg programme) and USDA-FAS
  • Partners of the Epigenesis project: INRA (Nantes), Ecole des Hautes Etudes de Santé Publique (EHESP, Rennes), Research Center on Animal Health of Cataluna (CReSA, Spain), AviaGIS (Belgium), IBET (Portugal), ITQB (Portugal)
  • Members of the Epigenesis Scientific committee and Innovation and technology transfer boards: University of Antilles (Guadeloupe), Institut Pasteur de Guadeloupe, Guadeloupe University hospital, University of Aix Marseille, CIRAD CMAEE-Senegal, University of Minnesota
  • Other participants included researchers from Institut Pasteur Guadeloupe, mosquito control agency (ARS-LAV), French public health agency (ARS)

The 1st regional conference aimed to bring together chief veterinary officers, researchers, risk managers, animal health managers and other decision makers to foster a better dialog between science and policy in the field of animal health. It was organized the same week (from the 20th to the 24th of April 2015) as 3 other events: the EPIGENESIS steering committee (SC) meeting, including the EPIGENESIS innovation and technology transfer and the scientific committee boards, the CaribVET SC and the meeting of CARICOM Chiefs of veterinary services.

The scientific aspects included presentations and discussions on insect-borne diseases (West Nile virus, Blue tongue), tick-borne diseases (Heartwater, Anaplasmosis and babesiosis) and ticks  (Tropical Bont Tick, Cattle Fever Tick), rodent-borne diseases (leptospirosis), emerging and re-emerging diseases in the Caribbean, as well as new surveillance & risk assessment tools.

Research topics that were presented at the conference mainly dealt with research of CIRAD Guadeloupe, including the projects of the post-doc researchers recruited on the Epigenesis project while other scientific/technical presentations dealt with activities conducted within the frame of CaribVET Working groups and addressed surveillance and animal health policy more generally.

Access the programme of the Conference

More information:

The Conference was funded by the Epigenesis project and participation from Chief Veterinary Officers from CARIFORUM countries was supported by the 10th European Development Funds SPS Project: “Support to the Forum of Caribbean States in the implementation of the commitments undertaken under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA): Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures” being executed by IICA. Additional funding support was provided by Guadeloupe Region and French Ministry of Agriculture (DAAF Guadeloupe).

Date: 
Tuesday, 21 April, 2015 - 08:00 to 17:30

GeoServer Workshop

Eva De Clercq has arrived at Avia-GIS for a two-week workshop on spatial data infrastructure.

Date: 
Tuesday, 16 September, 2014 - 09:00 to Friday, 26 September, 2014 - 17:00


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by Dr. Radut