ANSES and the French Biodiversity Agency sign a partnership agreement to support the health of living organisms and the environment
The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) and the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB) have entered into a partnership to strengthen their cooperation and share their respective expertise in human, animal and ecosystem health, in the context of climate change and as part of a “One Health” approach.
On Monday 17 June, Benoît Vallet, Director General of ANSES, and Olivier Thibault, General Manager of the OFB, signed an agreement laying the foundations for a collaborative partnership. The areas of work covered by this framework agreement include animal health – with the monitoring and study of diseases that can be transmitted between wildlife, farm animals and/or humans (such as bovine tuberculosis, bovine brucellosis, and avian influenza) – and the sanitary and environmental quality of water. The two agencies will pool their resources to assess the effects of chemicals on flora, fauna and soil quality.
The partnership is set to run for five years. The agreement provides for several forms of cooperation, including joint responses to requests for expert appraisals, the funding and implementation of research projects, and the development of monitoring methodologies. The partnership could also entail the pooling of data, the management and sharing of infrastructure and digital resources, and the joint organisation of scientific events and training courses.
Current and future collaborative projects
The signing of this agreement is increasing cooperation between ANSES and the OFB, which have already worked together on several initiatives such as the National Epidemiological Surveillance Platform for Animal Health (ESA) and the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC). The two agencies also jointly lead the scientific and technical committee for the Ecophyto plan.
The new partnership will also promote cooperation on topics of common interest on which the two agencies have not yet worked together, such as the joint analysis of health and environmental data and the role of the human and social sciences, with a view to taking greater account of the health of living beings and ecosystems as a whole.