Animal health and welfare

Just like human health, animal health can be affected by a variety of pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. Some of the diseases affecting animals can also affect humans (zoonoses). By improving animal health, ANSES is also helping to protect public health, including veterinary public health. The Agency fosters the safety of foodstuffs and the security of food supplies, monitors emerging risks to human health and helps assure the financial soundness of production sectors.

ANSES helps mitigate and control major current and emerging animal diseases, whether they affect domestic animals or wildlife, including echinococcosis, avian influenza, tuberculosis and the Schmallenberg virus, and whether they are:

• transmissible to humans directly, e.g. rabies and Q fever, or through food, e.g. BSE, listeriosis or salmonellosis;
• specific to animals, such as foot and mouth disease, swine fever, bluetongue and some livestock diseases incurring considerable financial losses, such as piglet wasting disease.

Through its research, its in-house expertise and the collective expert appraisal system recently set up by the Risk Assessment Department, ANSES is also helping to protect and promote animal welfare.

ANSES’s focus on animal nutrition includes assessing animal health and nutrition risks, the advantages of products or treatment processes and risks arising from foodstuffs of animal origin intended for human consumption.

Through the French Agency for Veterinary Medicinal Products, ANSES controls and assesses the quality and efficacy of veterinary medicines. It also studies their safety with respect to animals, humans and the environment.

Investigating animal diseases

ANSES laboratories investigate pathogens. The Agency analyses the causes behind the outbreak and spread of pathogens on livestock farms—whether arising from domestic animals or any wildlife reservoirs—that may be fostered by farming conditions and feed. It also studies host/pathogen relationships and ways that pathogens can cross the species barrier. Within its Risk Assessment Department and through collective expert appraisals, it also assesses the risks associated with animal diseases, both with regard to production sectors and public health.

Improving animal disease control

Through its research and reference laboratories, ANSES is developing diagnostic tools to monitor the outbreak and spread of various diseases. It develops means of prevention, such as vaccines, and investigates alternative treatments by identifying the risk factors involved, often related to livestock farming conditions and herd or flock management.