“I like to collect dead rats when they are fresh. But most of the time, seagulls steal them from me.” Bernard Davoust is not confessing to a macabre passion. For the director of the veterinary research center at the Mediterranean Institute, the corpses of “surmulot” have simply become an almost daily study object. Leading a team of four veterinarians, he scrutinizes the local fauna to detect possible infections and potential “species barrier crossings” to humans. This question has been considered since the creation of the Institute in 2012, allowing for a comprehensive approach to infectious diseases: veterinarians, biologists, and infectious disease doctors working “on the same level.”
“75% of human pathogens have an animal reservoir”
“What is unique about French IHUs is the concept of ‘one health’ that has emerged in recent years but on which we have been working since the beginning here,” explains Pierre-Édouard Fournier, director of the Mediterranean Infectious Disease IHU. “If we look at all human pathogens, 65 to 75% have a connection to an animal reservoir. And many are transmitted by insects. Providing a pla…
