Projet Bioscope "l'observatoire du vivant en Méditerranée" – ANR-05-SEST-0048

The general goal of BioSCOPE, is to reinforce life observation either in human or animal aspects, stimulate research in theoretical epidemiology, focused on emerging infectious diseases, including top references in virology and microbiology. Implementation of the system will take advantage of the previous installation of a human sentinel system in Corsica. Observation of Human health : The Inserm unit 707 will coordinate this part of the project. It will set up a sentinel system in Corsica, i.e. an ongoing, real-time surveillance of various health conditions (e.g. influenza, gastroenteritidis, vaccine-preventable diseases), in collaboration with InVS and Cire Corse-PACA, the health authorities in charge of public health surveillance. The system, based on a network of sentinel general practitioners for data collection, will provide early warnings and reliable epidemiologic prevision in Corsica, and will redistribute information immediately to the health professionals, public and the media. Observation of Animal health : The Inra units (Epidémiologie animale, Theix, Gestion de la santé animale, Nantes) will coordinate this part of the project. In collaboration with other involved parties (Unité d’épidémiologie, unité Bipar, et unité de virologie de l’AFSSA-ENVA-Inra, CIRAD), they will set up a network of sentinels, using a similar approach as for human surveillance, and taking advantage of the already started programmes on Ble tongue and Trichinosis. The goal is to extent this surveillance to other diseases. Research in theoretical epidemiology of emerging infectious diseases will be performed in collaborative programmes gathering mathematicians, biologists, veterinarians, and epidemiologists from the various institutions (Inra, Inserm, IRD, ENS, Cirad). Models will use data from animals (wild birds, pigs, wild boar) and humans, but also from environmental series (e.g.climate series). It aims to study evolutionnary processes, time-spread dynamics, emerging processes through SIR mathematical models. Financial aspects : 1140 Keuro are requested for a three year-project, and will be distributed equally between its animal and human parts. Funds will be dedicated to fund an heavy platform for performing data collection, analysis and redistribution involving epidemiological, entomological, ornithological, and virological information deserving the current research programs on Blue tongu, trichinosis, avian and human influenza.