On 13 and 14 March 2018, the Regulated Products Assessment Department (DEPR) of the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) hosted a Workshop on Toxicological Risk Assessment of Plant Protection Products. The organising committee for the event was made up of ANSES along with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Commission (Directorate-General Health and Food Safety). This Workshop was a follow-up to one hosted by AGES in 2015. The meeting was attended by participants from the regulatory authorities of some 20 European countries, plus representatives of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European Commission and stakeholders. Central topics were: exposure assessment of operators, workers, bystanders and residents; estimating dermal absorption of products as part of exposure assessment; the assessment of cumulative and combined risks; the toxicological classification of plant protection products; consideration of co-formulants. The principal conclusions of the Workshop were: the harmonisation of risk assessment methods should be continued; areas for improvement have been identified, in particular situations where the estimation of exposure needs to be better harmonised between Member States; the adoption of harmonised methodology to facilitate the implementation of combined risk assessment; the new European guidance document on the estimation of dermal absorption will reinforce the harmonisation and robustness of evaluations; harmonised guidelines must be adopted for alternatives to animal testing in the evaluation

ANSES will participate to the International Livestock Trade Fair (SPACE) to be held in Rennes on 10-13 September 2019. The Agency will share a stand with the Armor Zoopôle Développement bioscience park and will meet with all those working in the sector (animal husbandry professionals, breeders, livestock technicians, veterinarians, technical institutes, pharmaceutical laboratories, analytical laboratories, research organisations and skateholders) as well as all those wishing to find out about the most recent findings on animal health, animal welfare and food safety. This event will be an opportunity for the Agency to present its activities, in particular those of its westernmost laboratories Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort and Fougères as well as those of the French Agency for Veterinary Medicinal Products (ANMV). The ANSES conference, is open to all and will present the latest news in animal health, animal welfare and food safety. This conference will be held on Wednesday 11 September from 2:00pm to 4:00pm in room 2 of the espace Région Bretagne (Brittany). See the 11 th september 2019 ANSES' conference presentations (in French) : salmonella, un pas entre la filière avicole et la filière bovine (PDF) (in French) par Laetitia Bonifait - laboratoire de Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort. quels sont les apports de la nouvelle réglementation européenne sur le médicament vétérinaire en matière d’élevage ? (PDF) (in French) par Paule Carnat-Gautier, - Agence nationale du médicament vétérinaire. la peste porcine africaine: ce qu’il faut savoir (PDF) (in French) par Marie-Frédérique Le Potier - laboratoire de Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort. résistance des strongles gastro-intestinaux aux anthelminthiques chez les petits ruminants (PDF) (in French) par Carine Paraud - laboratoire de Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort.

On 8 July 2019, ANSES and the ANR will once again join together to host a one-day event to present the results of research projects funded by the two institutions. This second event in the series will focus on endocrine disruptors, and more specifically on the scientific developments concerning exposure to these substances, their effects on human health and their mechanisms of action. Registration is closed. This event will be held in French only. Contact

From 12 to 14 April 2019 the Normandy Excellence Festival (FÊNO), organised by the Normandy Region, will take place in Caen. This major event aims to promote the region’s know-how and bring its people together around the Norman identity. Teams from the Normandy site of ANSES’s Laboratory for Food Safety will be in attendance, on a stand coordinated by Hippolia and devoted to horses, alongside other scientific players. The Agency is actively involved in horse health and all the health issues relating to the equine sector. This event will be an opportunity for the Agency to promote its missions and its laboratory's horse-related work, through fun educational activities intended for a wide audience of all ages

The second scientific conference dedicated to the presentation and discussion of the main ongoing research into Xylella fastidiosa will be held in Ajaccio, Corsica, from 29-30 October 2019. A post-conference field visit will be organised on 31 October. Registration and the call for abstracts are closed. Latest results from European research projects dealing with X. fastidiosa will be presented, in particular the final results from the Horizon 2020 POnTE project. The conference will also be an opportunity for participants to catch up on the latest advances and achievements of other national and transnational research activities ongoing worldwide and to discuss ways of strengthening coordination and synergies among them. The programme will include presentations and discussions on the latest data and knowledge on X. fastidiosa , its host plants and vectors and control options. The conference will cover the most recent results of research on: biology and pathogenicity; detection and surveillance; ecology, epidemiology and modelling; insect vectors; risk assessment and assessment of impacts (including environmental and socio-economic impact); sustainable management strategies. The conference is being organised jointly by: EFSA; the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA); the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES); the Office de l’Environnement de la Corse (OEC) through its department the Conservatoire Botanique National de Corse ; the EU-funded projects POnTE , XF-ACTORS , CURE-XF and EuroXanth ; and the Euphresco network for phytosanitary research coordination and funding.

As a leading public agency responsible for the indivisible health of humans, animals and ecosystems, ANSES strives constantly to meet the challenges of agriculture today and in the future. For this 2019 edition of the Paris International Agricultural Show, "Water quality and fishery products" are the major theme on the ANSES stand. As an environment for living organisms and a source of nutrition in its own right, water is a common good and a major health and food issue, but also a challenge for our agriculture, which must adapt to climate change and changes in our lifestyles. Water is one of the key themes common to ANSES's wide range of activities.

Botulism is a neuroparalytic disease caused by the action of the botulinum toxin, produced mainly by Clostridium botulinum . The disease affects both humans and animals and is included in List B of zoonotic agents and zoonoses. Human botulism is rare but very serious, while episodes observed in animals (particularly poultry, wild birds and cattle) lead to high mortality and considerable economic losses. Episodes are encountered more frequently in animals than in humans, with an upward trend observed in Europe over the last decade. Nine European research institutes working on botulism invite you to discuss the theme "Risks associated with animal botulism" at a seminar funded by MedVetNet that will take place at the ANSES headquarters in Maisons-Alfort on 28 and 29 March 2019. The seminar will be divided into three parts: a first session of presentations by invited speakers, a second session to present the results of the European ANIBOTNET project, and a third session whose aim will be to strengthen and expand the network of co-operations and initiate future research projects. The speakers invited to this event are among the leading experts in the field. The topics to be discussed will include the zoonotic risks of botulism, particularly in relation to episodes of animal botulism, the recent discovery of genes encoding botulinum toxin homologues in bacterial species other than Clostridium , and the risks to animal and human health associated with anaerobic digestion. This first session will conclude with a round-table discussion and exchange on the risks posed by animal botulism to public health. The results obtained during the ERA-NET ANIBOTNET project, which seeks to propose strategies to improve the surveillance, control and prevention of animal botulism, will be presented by the various partners (ANSES, IZSVe, IZSLT, ISS, FLI, RKI, WUR, University of Helsinki, SVA) on the second day. The seminar will end with an afternoon of discussions to define proposals for collaborative research projects on botulism involving the participants. Entry to the event is free of charge and open to all stakeholders (scientists, industrial companies, veterinarians, etc.), by registration only. Presentations and discussions will be in English. Mandatory prior registration is available until 28 February 2019 via caroline.lemarechal@anses.fr

Fuelled by cost reduction of sequencing and development at an exceptional pace of algorithmic and calculation resources, the medical, agronomic and food sectors are shaken by the genomic revolution. At the initiative of four national institutions working on food safety and risk assessment in France, Denmark, Germany, and South Korea, the conference will bring together researchers, risk assessors and risk managers for an update on the impact that whole genome sequencing (WGS) approachesalready have and will have in the near future in the food safety area. The scientific presentations will cover recent developments in the WGS data-based methods used in outbreaks detections, investigations and in epidemiological surveillance. The bioinformatics methods and platforms to characterize foodborne pathogens and interpret phenotypic variations (e.g. virulence, antimicrobial resistance and persistence) will be presented, while refinement of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) models with the implementation of the new comprehensive genomic data will be discussed. More the potential of metagenomics in the food safety field, with a special focus on virology will also be addressed. Two rounds tables with representatives of major international public health institutions to discuss actions to promote genomics approaches will close the meeting. To follow the news of the conference on social networks: #FoodSafetyWGS2019.

For the seventh consecutive year, ANSES's Sophia Antipolis Laboratory, the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for bee health, is organising its day of meetings devoted to bee health . The purpose of this conference, which is open to a broad audience, is to review recent scientific advances in the field. A large part of the day will be given over to debate, with exchanges between the researchers from the EURL, research institutes and the technical institute, as well as stakeholders. The topic of the round-table at day’s end will be the impact of agricultural models, growing practices and systemic landscape approaches on pollinator health. It will enable a wide range of players to present virtuous initiatives that have been implemented on the territorial level to improve environmental quality and to protect bee health. This event will take place at the Cordeliers campus in Paris.

The One Health EJP is a EU cofunded project under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. The European Joint Programme (EJP) on "One Health", coordinated by ANSES with the participation of 41 partners from 19 Member and Associated States, was approved by the European Commission and starts on 1 January 2018 for a period of 5 years. The international "One Health" concept recognises that human health is highly dependent on animal health and the environment, and that the foodborne contaminants in particular that affect human health, animal health and the environment are closely intertwined. The European Joint Programme (EJP) on "One Health" is implemented in this context. The One Health EJP will help strengthen cooperation between its partners. These research centres, most of which have reference mandates on foodborne zoonoses, form an organised network and represent an integrated research community whose aim is to promote scientific progress in the areas of foodborne zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and emerging risks. The programme has been built upon the principle of co-funding from the participating institutes and the European Union ("Horizon 2020", the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation). Costing amount €90 million, 50% of its funding will come from the European Commission. While ensuring effective interaction with the other major projects funded by the European Commission, the One Health EJP will generate scientific data to be used as input for the analysis of health risks and their assessment by national and European agencies. One of the network's priorities will be to monitor the proper dissemination of information within the scientific community. The objective of the Kick-off meeting is therefore to disseminate political messages on the importance of this One Health initiative to the EJP community as well as concretely introduce organisation and functioning of the One health EJP and scientific activities which will be implemented.