Virology UMR
Head of Unit: Nicole Pavio (ANSES)
Deputy Directors: Jennifer Richardson (INRAE) and Bernard Klonjkowski (ENVA).
The Virology Joint Research Unit (UMR), created in January 2002, is governed by three supervisory bodies: ANSES, the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) and the Alfort National Veterinary School (ENVA).
The research carried out within the UMR mainly covers three major strategic orientations: biology of viral infections, and interspecies transmission in particular; detection and epidemiology of emerging and re-emerging viral infections, and development of vaccines and antiviral therapies. The Virology UMR takes a comprehensive approach to veterinary public health research, with objectives ranging from the applied to the fundamental.
Reference activities
The Virology UMR has several national reference laboratory (NRL) mandates: Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), African horse sickness virus (AHSV), Bluetongue virus (BTV), Vesicular stomatitis, and West Nile virus.
It also holds two European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) mandates: Foot-and-mouth disease, and Equine diseases (West Nile virus, Eastern, Western, Venezuelan and Japanese equine encephalitis viruses, and vesicular stomatitis virus).
At the international level, the unit is the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) reference laboratory for foot-and-mouth disease virus and epizootic haemorrhagic disease. Lastly, it is an FAO Collaborating Centre for foot-and-mouth disease.
Surveillance activities
The unit, as an NRL, helps coordinate networks of about 60 regional laboratories in France. At the international level, it is involved in cross-border disease surveillance.
Expert appraisal activities
The Virology UMR conducts expert appraisals for international organisations such as WOAH, the FAO, the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-mouth Disease (EuFMD), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Scientists from the unit are members of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut.
Research activities
The unit studies zoonotic (transmissible to humans) or epizootic (animal epidemic) viruses of major importance for human and animal health. Its research activities include fundamental questions on the biology of viral agents, as well as applied research on epidemiology, vaccinology and the mechanisms of virus-host cell interactions. As an example, the UMR is assessing novel diagnostic tools for epidemiological surveillance and phylogenetic studies of animal viruses. There is a particular focus on the orbivirus and picornavirus groups of viruses, as well as on enteric viruses, the neurovirology of zoonoses (infection of the nervous system by viruses), the crossing of species barriers, adenovirus-derived vectors and vaccines.
The themes studied by the Virology UMR include:
- developing new diagnostic and prevention methods for major animal viral diseases (foot-and-mouth disease, bluetongue, equine viral diseases, etc.);
- coordinating epidemiology networks (West Nile virus, other equine viruses, bluetongue virus, etc.);
- analysing the risk of transmission from animals to humans (West Nile virus, Borna virus, coronavirus, picornavirus, hepatitis E virus, etc.);
- analysing the potential public health risks of animal viruses: virus-host interactions, interspecies transmission;
- generic approaches in vaccinology: development of new vectors associated with genes coding for major antigens of different economically important viruses;
- developing molecular tools for monitoring tick infection by zoonotic arboviruses.
Research projects
Partners specific to the unit
In addition to collaborating with several partners common to the whole laboratory, the UMR has established specific partnerships with:
- The national reference centres for arboviruses (Marseille university hospital institute) and hepatitis E (Purpan university hospital, Toulouse)
- Animal Health Research Centre – National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (CISA-INIA), Spain
- Italian health authority and research organisation for animal health and food safety (IZS), Italy
- Kimron Veterinary Institute, Israel
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
- National Veterinary Research Institute, Nigeria
- Pirbright Institute and Nottingham Veterinary School, UK
- Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
- University of Glasgow, UK
- University of Pretoria, South Africa
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
- Institute of Foot-and-mouth Disease (SAP), Turkey