Study of Pesticide Effects on Animal Immunological Resistance – SPAIR

Rodents and chiropterans harbour numerous micro-organisms that pose a risk to public health, as they are likely to cause the emergence of diseases in humans or domestic animals, particularly when these reservoirs are synanthropic. These pathogens include leptospires and hantaviruses, particularly in rodents, and lyssaviruses in chiropterans. The ability of rodents and chiropterans to act as reservoirs for pathogens with zoonotic potential is partly due to their tolerance to these micro-organisms, resulting from a long history of co-evolution and adaptation of their immune systems. However, their immune systems can be affected by a number of factors, including exposure to certain chemical molecules. The industrial revolution has led to a considerable increase in the environmental burden of certain toxic chemical agents, including pollutants that are persistent and bio-accumulative over long periods. This is the case, for example, with certain pesticides, which permeate the ecosystems in which these two orders of mammal live. The first objective of the SPAIR project is to assess the impact of pesticides on the prevalence of infection of infectious agents with zoonotic potential in wild reservoir animals. This assessment will be carried out both retrospectively, using an existing collection of biological samples, and prospectively by continuing and expanding the existing collection during the course of the project. The second objective of the project will focus on studying the impact of these pesticides on the characteristics of the virus infection and on the innate immune response, using adapted cellular models of bats and rodents. Ultimately, this project will provide, for the first time, an assessment of the impact of pesticides (via human activity) on the infection response capacity of two prototypical examples of animal reservoirs of zoonotic agents: rodents and bats, via an integrative approach, from the field to the specific cellular model.