On Dec.12, 2016, Dr. Maria Dolores Fernandez-GARCIA from Institut Pasteur de Dakar (Senegal) visited WIV and gave an academic presentation.

In her report, Dr. Maria Dolores Fernandez-GARCIA talked about the frontline experience of the Pasteur Institute of Dakar during viral outbreaks, Ebola, Zika, Yellow Fever, Polio and non-polio enteroviruses as examples. According to her, from 2014 to 2016, the laboratory supported local governments during the infectious disease outbreaks including Ebola, Zika and Yellow Fever, coordinated the collection, analysis of microbiological and epidemiological data, developed molecular and serological diagnostic tools, traced the evolutionary history of the viruses, sequenced the genomes, and paved the way for ambitious research projects that will support the management of health crises and the development of future strategies for prevention.

On Dec. 16, 2016, Dr. Herve Bourhy from Institut Pasteur paid a visit to WIV. He talked about the bat lyssaviruses in Europe. In his report, bats are reservoir hosts of numerous emerging viruses that can cross the species barrier to infect other wild and domestic animals, and also humans. These include lyssaviruses, the agents of rabies, that probably originated in bats and progressively diverged from a common ancestor to infect many recipient host species. To date, bats were found to serve as reservoirs of 13 of the 15 lyssavirus species described so far. In Europe, four of these lyssavirus species, namely European bat lyssavirus types 1 and 2 (EBLV-1 and EBLV-2, respectively), Bokeloh bat lyssavirus (BBLV), West Caucasian bat virus (WCBV) and one tentative species, Lleida bat lyssavirus, circulate among several bat species.

The EMERGENGES 2016 Program launched by the French Embassy in China supports French-Chinese cooperation in emergent infectious diseases. The two scientists are selected as French representatives under this program to visit China.