Gilles Salvat appointed ANSES Managing Director General for Research and Reference

Gilles Salvat graduated from the Nantes National Veterinary School in 1987 and has a doctorate in microbiology. He has devoted a large part of his career to research that benefits veterinary public health.

Gilles Salvat has been working in food safety research since 1987, and in 1997 became head of the Hygiene and Quality of Poultry and Pig Products unit at the Ploufragan Laboratory of the CNEVA (which became AFSSA in 1999, and then ANSES in 2010). In 2004, he was appointed Director of the ANSES Ploufragan-Plouzané Laboratory, which works to ensure the safety, health and welfare of poultry, rabbits and pigs and, since 2006, the health of farmed fish. He has also been Director for Animal Health and Welfare at the Agency since 2011.

In the course of his career, Gilles Salvat has conducted research on the microbiology of foods, particularly microbial ecology, on Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria in the swine and poultry sectors, and on the link between methods of farming and food processing and microbiological risks and their prevention. He is the author of over 200 publications, conference papers and book chapters, including around a hundred international peer-reviewed publications.

With almost 30 years of experience as a scientist dedicated to food safety and animal health and welfare, he took up his new role as Managing Director General of the Research & Reference Division on 1 February. He therefore now coordinates the various Agency entities working on research and reference.

Through his new missions, Gilles Salvat will propose the strategy and scientific orientations of the eleven research, reference and health surveillance laboratories, defined in conjunction with the general orientations of the Risk Assessment and Regulated Products Assessment departments. Furthermore, he and his teams will be tasked with strengthening scientific partnerships with other health agencies and research and higher education establishments, and initiating, supporting and coordinating measures helping to promote and disseminate the results of the ANSES laboratories’ research and reference activities.

For Gilles Salvat, this appointment represents "recognition of [his] commitment to veterinary public health within the Agency". He adds that “[he] will endeavour to maintain ANSES's scientific excellence, working closely with the French and international teams."