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The Drosophila melanogaster or fruit fly may be used to assess whether pesticides induce an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. This was the conclusion reached by scientists in the ANSES Lyon Laboratory’s Neurodegenerative Diseases Unit, who have been collaborating with researchers from the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon. Working on paraquat, they also showed that the effects of this compound on proteins were not strictly identical to those of ageing. We interviewed Jean-Noël Arsac, one of the authors of the study.

ANSES's Laboratory for Hydrology has been appointed National Reference Laboratory for the monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater and sewage sludge, by the Ministries of Health and Ecological Transition. Its responsibilities include harmonising the methods used to detect the virus and assessing the abilities of the laboratories tasked with carrying out the analyses.

European Antibiotic Awareness Day is taking place on 18 November 2021. For this occasion, ANSES is publishing the results of several monitoring programmes that it carries out to prevent the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in farm and domestic animals in France. Below is a review of some key findings with Jean-Yves Madec, Scientific Director for antimicrobial resistance and Head of the French surveillance network for antimicrobial resistance in pathogenic bacteria of animal origin (RESAPATH), Gérard Moulin, Deputy Director of the French Agency for Veterinary Medicinal Products (ANMV), and Agnès Perrin-Guyomard, Deputy Head of the National Reference Laboratory for antimicrobial resistance.

Monitoring antimicrobial resistance is essential to making sure that antibiotics are used appropriately in order to reduce the resistance of micro-organisms. ANSES scientists have taken part in several studies showing how this monitoring can be improved, either by taking account of bacterial species that are not yet monitored, diversifying surveillance contexts or promoting harmonisation at European level.