Following the meeting organised in the Camargue in the spring of 2017 between the Man and Biosphere Programme Health Research Group from Kristianstad University Sweden and the team of scientists at the Tour du Valat, the scope of the collaborative projects between the two organisations has been extended.
A research project on antibiotic resistance found in water was launched during the winter of 2017-2018. Olivier Boutron (a hydraulics engineer) and Marion Vittecoq (a health ecology specialist) co-supervised the work of Sara Lindberg, an Erasmus intern, with Ann-Sofi Rehnstam-Holm, a professor of microbiology at Kristianstad University.
The aim of this internship, which will come to an end in August, is to better understand the antibiotic resistant bacteria and the origins of antibiotic resistance genes found in the various wetlands in the Camargue. This work will enable us to better understand how the rodents and gulls, which live in these wetlands and in which the antibiotic resistant bacteria were isolated, were contaminated.
In the framework of this internship, another meeting of these two teams was organised in mid-May 2018. Olivier Boutron and Marion Vittecoq were thus able to present their research at Kristianstad University and exchange ideas with the researchers there and with the managers of the Vattenriket biosphere reserve, which covers over 8000 hectares around the city. These exchanges of ideas are all the more interesting because this Swedish region faces many of the same challenges as the Camargue, in the first place, the need to conserve the numerous wetlands found in it, and to adapt to current changes such as the inflow of sea water.
A new collaborative endeavour should be launched in the autumn. This time, Tour du Valat scientists will welcome their Swedish counterparts to assess the possibility of diversifying even further the joint studies conducted by the two organisations.
Contact: Marion Vittecoq (e-mail)
