Montpellier will be hosting the international meeting of the EDEN project from 10 to 12 May 2010

The questions tackled by EDEN concerned the consequences of climate and environmental change on the emergence of diseases carried by vectors (mosquitoes, ticks, etc). The recent examples of Chikungunya in Réunion and Italy, and bluetongue, have shown that the issue is still relevant. Teams from the 49 scientific partners in the project, from 24 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, have provided answers supported by results obtained in the field and the laboratory. The debate between the project's researchers and other European and international teams looks set to be fascinating, particularly as globally recognized scientific experts are due to be giving their own views of these epidemiological processes.

These diseases without frontiers

Various diseases sensitive to environmental change have been studied as current and future risk models. They are mostly zoonoses: diseases that affect both animals and man. They are transmitted by insects, ticks or rodents, which are also reservoirs of numerous diseases.

Tick-borne encephalitis , a viral disease transmitted by the bite of a sandfly. It primarily affects central and eastern Europe, and northern Europe (Baltic countries, Scandinavia). It is beginning to be seen in eastern France. "The EDEN project has shown that socio-economic factors, changing landscapes and changing human behaviour are of much greater importance than climate change for the emergence of this disease in Europe ", Renaud Lancelot explains.

Zoonotic leishmaniasis , of which dogs are the main reservoir, is transmitted by stinging flies commonly found in the drier areas of the Mediterranean (including the Montpellier hinterland).

Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome is transmitted to man through contact with rodent urine or faeces. It is a health risk in Scandinavia (several thousand cases in Finland in 2008-2009). The disease is also found in Belgium, northeastern France, Luxembourg and Germany. Global warming has fostered the disease for various reasons, ranging from reduced snowfall in Scandinavia to increased forest fruiting in western Europe.

Malaria risks being introduced around the Mediterranean (particularly in Camargue), due to the persistence of its vectors, and to international travel: 10 000 "imported" cases of malaria are seen each year in Europe, which are all opportunities of re-triggering old epidemiological cycles. However, "public health services are vigilant: diagnosis is quick and treatment effective. The risks of a resurgence of malaria in the Mediterranean are thus very small ".

West Nile virus , which is carried by migrating birds and transmitted by mosquitoes, represents a small but nevertheless real risk for horses and humans. "Infected mosquitoes can hibernate in sewers or condemned buildings. They seem to persist in some natural environments, and to be firmly established in several European countries. There are equivalent viruses on the American continent. Their introduction into Europe could cause epidemics similar to those caused by West Nile virus in the USA at the start of the 2000s ".

Like West Nile virus, Rift Valley fever is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. It is transmitted by mosquitoes, and causes serious epidemics in ruminants and humans, which could spread as far as the Mediterranean.

Over and above the results specific to each disease, scientists have identified the ecosystems most exposed to the risks of emergence, depending on the vectors involved. The factors behind emergence have been studied, distinguishing between environmental, social and economic effects. Risk maps and predictive models have been produced, the first stage in developing sanitary decision support tools. "The main aim of the project ", says Renaud Lancelot, "is indeed to offer public human and veterinary health bodies European expertise, along with methods and tools that will allow us to improve the prevention, surveillance and control of any vector-borne disease epidemic ".

A community project

The EDEN project (2005-2010)* is part of the 6th European Commission FP (Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development), and is being coordinated by Renaud Lancelot, a researcher with CIRAD's "Disease Control" Joint Research Unit.

The project involves 80 scientific teams from Europe, and also from Turkey, Algeria, Morocco and Senegal. More than 180 scientific articles have already been published and some sixty university theses are under way, centring on the data generated by the project. More than 20% of the publications to date have come from research centres and universities in Montpellier (10% of the partners).

EDEN has also served to associate teams from CIRAD, the IRD, EID-Méditerranée and universities in Montpellier ( UM1 and UM2), while enabling the region to strengthen its expertise in emerging vector-borne diseases, in line with and alongside the Vectopôle project (capacity-building on disease vectors and transmitted infections).

* EDEN project Steering Committee:

Sub-projects by disease:
Sarah Randolph - sarah.randolph@zoo.ox.ac.uk (tick-borne diseases)
Heikki Henttonen - heikki.henttonen@metla.fi (rodent-borne diseases)
Paul Ready - p.ready@nhm.ac.uk (leishmaniasis)
Paul Reiter - preiter@pasteur.fr (West Nile virus)
Didier Fontenille - fontenil@mpl.ird.fr (malaria)
Amadou Diaïté - amadoudiaite@hotmail.com (Africa platform)

Integration teams:
David Rogers - david.rogers@zoo.ox.ac.uk (low-resolution modelling)
Eric Lambin - lambin@geog.ucl.ac.be (environmental change)
Willy Wint - william.wint@zoo.ox.ac.uk (data management)
Hans Heesterbeek - j.a.p.heesterbeek@vet.uu.nl (disease modelling)
Jean-François Guégan - JF.GUEGAN@mpl.ird.fr (biodiversity)

Secretariat :
David Rogers – david.rogers@zoo.ox.ac.uk (Steering Committee Chairman)
Guy Hendrickx – ghendrickx@avia-gis.be (Steering Committee Secretary)
Renaud Lancelot – renaud.lancelot@cirad.fr (EDEN Coordinator)