Rodolphe Elie Gozlan

• Bsc, Msc, Mphil, PhD
• Head of Department at Institute of Research for Development

Predominantly occurring in developing parts of the world, Buruli ulcer is a severely disabling mycobacterium infection which often leads to extensive necrosis of the skin. While the exact route of transmission remains uncertain, like many tropical diseases, associations with climate have been previously observed and could help identify the causativ...

Many emerging infectious diseases are caused by generalist pathogens that infect and transmit via multiple host species with multiple dissemination routes, thus confounding the understanding of pathogen transmission pathways from wildlife reservoirs to humans. The emergence of these pathogens in human populations has frequently been associated with...

In many developing countries, aquaculture is key to ensuring food security for millions of people. It is thus important to measure the full implications of environmental changes on the sustainability of aquaculture. We conduct a double meta-analysis (460 articles) to explore how global warming and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) impact aquaculture....

Generalist microorganisms are the agents of many emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), but their natural life cycles are difficult to predict due to the multiplicity of potential hosts and environmental reservoirs. Among 250 known human EIDs, many have been traced to tropical rain forests and specifically freshwater aquatic systems, which act as an...

Biological invasions are responsible for substantial biodiversity declines as well as high economic losses to society and monetary expenditures associated with the management of these invasions1,2. The InvaCost database has enabled the generation of a reliable, comprehensive, standardized and easily updatable synthesis of the monetary costs of biol...

The spread of non-native species threatens biodiversity and exacerbates societal challenges like food security. To address this, effective conservation programs require detection methods that are easy to implement, accurate, and non-invasive. Over the past 15 years, environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques have gained popularity, surpassing traditional...

We address the issue of reconciling the hygienist and dilutionist (H&D) perspectives for a global understanding of health as envisioned in the One Health framework. Rich and poor countries share pockets of poverty on the outskirts of urban centres, known as ‘infectious bubbles’, which remain high-risk areas for disease emergence due to a common fai...

Fish show variation in feeding habits to adapt to complex environments. However, the genetic basis of feeding preference and the corresponding metabolic strategies that differentiate feeding habits remain elusive. Here, by comparing the whole genome of a typical carnivorous fish ( Leiocassis longirostris Günther) with that of herbivorous fish, we i...

https://theconversation.com/pandemies-du-futur-comment-anticiper-lemergence-de-la-maladie-x-221794 Anticiper l’émergence de nouvelles maladies infectieuses est devenu l’un des défis majeurs de notre époque, comme nous l’a brutalement rappelé la pandémie de Covid-19. La question n’est pas tant de savoir « si » une prochaine pandémie va se produire...

The origin of introduction of a new pathogen in a country, the evolutionary dynamics of an epidemic within a country, and the role of cross-border areas on pathogen dynamics remain complex to disentangle and are often poorly understood. For instance, cross-border areas represent the ideal location for the sharing of viral variants between countries...

Understanding long‐term changes in fish diversity and community assembly rules is crucial for freshwater conservation. Growing evidence indicates that studying functional and phylogenetic diversity beyond purely taxonomic considerations can provide different but complementary information on community assembly. Here, the taxonomic, functional, and p...

https://theconversation.com/biodiversite-maladies-emergentes-epidemies-reveler-linvisible-grace-a-ladn-present-dans-lenvironnement-190389

The identification of an emerging pathogen in humans can remain difficult by conventional methods such as enrichment culture assays that remain highly selective, require appropriate medium and cannot avoid misidentifications, or serological tests that use surrogate antigens and are often hampered by the level of detectable antibodies. Although not...

The identification of an emerging pathogen in humans can remain difficult by conventional methods such as enrichment culture assays that remain highly selective, require appropriate medium and cannot avoid misidentifications, or serological tests that use surrogate antigens and are often hampered by the level of detectable antibodies. Although not...

With an ever-increasing human population, food security remains a central issue for the coming years. The magnitude of the environmental impacts of food production has motivated the assessment of the environmental and health benefits of shifting diets, from meat to fish and seafood. One of the main concerns for the sustainable development of aquacu...

s The emergence of pathogenic fungi is a major and rapidly growing problem (7% increase) that affects human and animal health, ecosystems, food security, and the economy worldwide. The Dermocystida group in particular has emerged relatively recently and includes species that affect both humans and animals. Within this group, one species in particul...

The emergence of pathogenic fungi is a major and rapidly growing problem (7% increase) that affects human and animal health, ecosystems, food security and the economy worldwide. The Dermocystida group in particular has emerged relatively recently and includes species that affect both humans and animals. Within this group, one species in particular,...

Despite the apparent absence of physical barriers in the ocean to prevent dispersal, recent studies have highlighted the importance of biological, geographical, physical, and historical barriers in the genetic structuring of marine species populations. This representation is essential for the sustainable exploitation of natural marine resources and...

Freshwater fish have been widely introduced worldwide, and freshwater ecosystems are among those most affected by biological invasions. Consequently, freshwater fish invasions are one of the most documented invasions among animal taxa, with much information available about invasive species, their characteristics, invaded regions, invasion pathways,...

The introduction and use of non‐native species in aquaculture have played a central role in the development of this economic sector worldwide. Tilapia is one of the most widely introduced species in the world, and China has become the largest producer and consumer of tilapia. While non‐native tilapia in China support provisioning ecosystem services...

Insufficient data on the origins of the first introduced propagule and the initial stages of invasion complicate the reconstruction of a species’ invasion history. Phylogeography of the native area profoundly shapes the genomic patterns of the propagules on which subsequent demographic processes of the invasion are based. Thus, a better understandi...

In addition to being a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, biological invasions also have profound impacts on economies and human wellbeing. However, the threats posed by invasive species often do not receive adequate attention and lack targeted management. In part, this may result from different or even ambivalent perceptions o...

Background: Zoonotic diseases account for more than 70% of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs). Due to their increasing incidence and impact on global health and the economy, the emergence of zoonoses is a major public health challenge. Here, we use a biogeographic approach to predict future hotspots and determine the factors influencing disease e...

Unselective fishing involves activities that target the entire assemblage rather than specific fish species, size classes, or trophic levels. This common fishing approach has been in practice for decades in inland waters in China but its implications for biodiversity remain unclear. We addressed this issue by studying fish assemblages in freshwater...

The global increase in biological invasions is placing growing pressure on the management of ecological and economic systems. However, the effectiveness of current management expenditure is difficult to assess due to a lack of standardised measurement across spatial, taxonomic and temporal scales. Furthermore, there is no quantification of the spen...

Introduction pathways play a pivotal role in the success of Invasive Alien Species (IAS)—the subset of alien species that have a negative environmental and/or socio-economic impact. Pathways refer to the fundamental processes that leads to the introduction of a species from one geographical location to another—marking the beginning of all alien spe...

Freshwater fish have been widely introduced worldwide, and freshwater ecosystems are among the most affected by biological invasions. Consequently, freshwater fish invasions are one of the most documented invasions among animal taxa, with much information available about invasive species, their characteristics, invaded regions, invasion pathways, i...

Despite voluminous literature identifying the impacts of invasive species, summaries of monetary costs for some taxonomic groups remain limited. Invasive alien crustaceans often have profound impacts on recipient ecosystems, but there may be great unknowns related to their economic costs. Using the InvaCost database, we quantify and analyse reporte...

Motivation Amplicon-based nanopore sequencing is increasingly used for molecular surveillance during epidemics (e.g. ZIKA, EBOLA) or pandemics (e.g. SARS-CoV-2). However, there is still a lack of versatile and easy-to-use tools that allow users with minimal bioinformatics skills to perform the main steps of downstream analysis, from quality testing...

Invasive alien fishes have had pernicious ecological and economic impacts on both aquatic ecosystems and human societies. However, a comprehensive and collective assessment of their monetary costs is still lacking. In this study, we collected and reviewed reported data on the economic impacts of invasive alien fishes using InvaCost, the most compre...

https://theconversation.com/laugmentation-de-la-population-mondiale-responsable-des-crises-sanitaires-174983

The global increase in biological invasions is placing growing pressure on the management of ecological and economic systems. However, the effectiveness of current management expenditure is difficult to assess due to a lack of standardised measurement across spatial, taxonomic and temporal scales. Furthermore, there is no quantification of the spen...

Background Zoonotic diseases account for more than 70% of emerging infectious diseases. Due to their increasing incidence, and impact on global health and economy, anticipating the emergence of zoonoses is a major public health challenge. Here, we use a biogeographic approach to predict future hotspots and determine the factors influencing disease...

Stocking hatchery-reared fish in natural shallow lakes is a common practice in Chinese fisheries. The success of these fisheries depends on the balance between the commercial value of the stock and the growth performance of stocked fish to rapidly reach commercial size. The mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi has become a commercially important fishery...

Motivation: Amplicon-based nanopore sequencing is increasingly used for molecular surveillance during epidemics (e.g. ZIKA, EBOLA) or pandemics (e.g. SARS-CoV-2). However, there is still a lack of versatile and easy-to-use tools that allow users with minimal bioinformatics skills to perform the main steps of downstream analysis, from quality testin...

The emergence of non-native fungal pathogens is a growing threat to global health, biodiversity, conservation biology, food security and the global economy. Moreover, a thorough understanding of the spread and emergence of pathogens among invasive and native host populations, as well as genetic analysis of the structure of co-invasive host populati...

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is the most prevalent form of Leishmaniasis and is widely endemic in the Americas. Several species of Leishmania are responsible for CL, a severely neglected tropical disease and the treatment of CL vary according to the different species of Leishmania. We proposed to map the distribution of the Leishmania species repor...

Whilst the ecological impacts of invasion by alien species have been well documented, little is known of the economic costs incurred. The impacts of invasive alien species on the economy can be wide-ranging, from management costs, to loss of crops, to infrastructure damage. However, details on these cost estimates are still lacking, particularly at...

Much research effort has been invested in understanding ecological impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) across ecosystems and taxonomic groups, but empirical studies about economic effects lack synthesis. Using a comprehensive global database, we determine patterns and trends in economic costs of aquatic IAS by examining: (i) the distribution of...

Background The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need of surveillance system to detect threats and regions at high risk from emerging infectious diseases (EIDs). With the human-driven perturbations to the human-animal-pathogen interface at an ecological scale, the integration of these environmental drivers is essential. We propose robust ma...

Introduction pathways play a pivotal role in the success of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) – the subset of alien species that have a negative environmental and/or socio-economic impact. Pathways refer to the fundamental mechanism that leads to the introduction of a species outside of its native range – marking the beginning of all alien species invas...

Despite voluminous literature identifying invasive species impacts, understandings of monetary costs remain limited. Recently, profound impacts have been attributed to invasive crustaceans, but associated monetary costs lack synthesis. Here, we analyse globally reported costs of invasive freshwater craysh across taxonomic, spatial and temporal desc...

Invasive alien fishes have caused pernicious ecological impacts on aquatic ecosystems. However, there has not been a global appraisal of associated economic impacts. Here, we compiled reported economic impacts of invasive alien fishes using the most comprehensive global database of invasion costs (InvaCost). We analyze how fish invasion costs are d...

The distribution of cetaceans is generally studied on the basis of their visual locations. However, the absence of observations does not exclude the presence of dolphins and not allow to distinguish habitats favourable to the species but where it would be currently absent due to anthropic disturbances. The modelling of ecological niches represents...

Invasive species are significant contributors to global changes and constitute a severe threat to biodiversity. Yet invasions offer an incredible framework to understand how small and low-diverse introduced populations adapt to novel environmental conditions and succeed in colonizing large areas. However, due to the insufficient data on the origin...

1. Iran is a major freshwater fish diversity hotspot in the Middle East, and is an important zoogeographical area in west Asia, acting as the crossroads and dispersal corridor between several major biogeographical realms of the world. The topmouth gudgeon, Pseudorasbora parva was first recorded in Iran on 6 May 1991 in the Caspian Sea basin and is...

The release of piscivorous fishes is considered crucial to alleviate eutrophication and fish miniaturization, as well as to develop sustainable fisheries management strategy for Yangtze lakes. In order to promote the stock enhancement programme of a new released piscivorous fish species Culter mongolicus, growth, recapture rates, reproduction and i...

Invasive fish species impact aquatic ecosystems and modify native communities, often leading to a decline in local species. These ecological impacts include the transmission of pathogens, predation, competition as well as hybridization. Two invasive fish species, the common bleak Alburnus alburnus and the topmouth gudgeon Pseudorabora parva, have b...

Biological invasions are responsible for tremendous impacts globally, including huge economic losses and management expenditures. Efficiently mitigating this major driver of global change requires the improvement of public awareness and policy regarding its substantial impacts on our socio-ecosystems. One option to contribute to this overall object...

Purpose of Review Leprosy is one of the first pathologies described in the history of mankind. However, the ecology, transmission, and pathogenicity of the incriminated bacilli remain poorly understood. Despite effective treatment freely distributed worldwide since 1995, around 200,000 new cases continue to be detected yearly, mostly in the tropics...

Rapid adaptation to global change can counter vulnerability of species to population declines and extinction. Theoretically, under such circumstances both genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity can maintain population fitness, but empirical support for this is currently limited. Here, we aim to characterize the role of environmental and geneti...

Buruli ulcer (BU) is the third most common mycobacterial disease worldwide and affects mainly poor human populations living in tropical and subtropical areas. In 2018, Africa and Australia reported the most cases (2335 and 358 cases, respectively), followed by French Guiana (FG, 5 cases) and Japan (3 cases). Clinical signs of the disease include pa...

Anthropization of natural habitats including climate change along with overpopulation and global travel have been contributing to emerging infectious diseases outbreaks. The recent COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, highlights such threats to human health, social stability and global trade and economy. We used species distribution modelling and environmen...

Background Urban disadvantaged neighborhoods have higher HIV risk behavior and higher levels of AIDS-related mortality. Studies demonstrate that interventions at the community level focusing on risk groups have increased success rates than individual patient-based based management in the context of HIV/AIDS. We tested a novel approach to identify p...

Based on optimal foraging theory, animals are expected to maximize foraging benefits whilst minimizing risks. Despite risking being subjected to anthropogenic impacts such as water contamination, marine traffic, and underwater noise, estuaries have been identified as the preferred habitat of the Indo‐Pacific humpback dolphin ( Sousa chinensis , IPH...

Understanding the ecological impacts of large-scale hydraulic projects is critical for maintaining ecosystem health while meeting human water needs. It is, however, currently hindered by a lack of direct evidence on ecological impacts associated with this type of project particularly on water quality and fish communities. Here, we characterized pat...

Une étude récente souligne les effets du réchauffement climatique sur l'antibiorésistance dans les fermes aquacoles. Une situation qui constitue une menace pour la sécurité alimentaire mondiale. https://theconversation.com/avec-la-hausse-des-temperatures-laquaculture-bientot-un-point-chaud-de-lantibioresistance-135865

Introduction Le tatou à 9 bandes (Dasypus novemcinctus) est un réservoir de Mycobacterium leprae dans les Amériques. Les contacts des tatous avec les humains sont fréquents, du fait de leur proximité avec l’homme et de la fréquente consommation de leur viande. Des cas humains de lèpre par transmission zoonotique par les tatous sauvages ont été conf...

Individual variability in dispersal strategies, where some individuals disperse and others remain resident, is a common phenomenon across many species. Despite its important ecological consequences, the mechanisms and individual consequences of dispersal remain poorly understood. Here, riverine Northern pike (Esox lucius) juveniles (age 0+ (young‐o...

Facilitated by the intensification of global trading, the introduction and dispersal of species to areas in which they are historically non‐native is nowadays common. From an evolutionary standpoint, invasions are paradoxical: not only non‐native environments could be different from native ones for which introduced individuals would be ill‐adapted,...

Background: With the increase in unprecedented and unpredictable disease outbreaks due to human-driven environmental changes in recent years, we need new analytical tools to map and predict the spatial distribution of emerging infectious diseases and identify the biogeographic drivers underpinning their emergence. The aim of the study was to ident...

We would like to attract the attention of the research community to the indirect implications of gold mining activities on emerging infectious diseases in tropical countries. Recent studies have shown that human disruption to the environment such as deforestation and rapid alterations to land cover influence disease emergence and its geographical d...

Combined Nanopore and Illumina whole-genome sequencing of a French Guianan Mycobacterium ulcerans (Buruli ulcer agent) clinical isolate yielded a 5.12-Mbp genome with a 65.5% GC content, 5,215 protein-coding genes, and 51 predicted RNA genes. This publicly available M. ulcerans whole-genome sequence from a strain isolated in South America is closel...

Understanding drivers of freshwater fish assemblages is critically important for biodiversity conservation strategies, especially in rapidly developing countries, which often have environmental protections lagging behind economic development. The influences of natural and human factors in structuring fish assemblages and their relative contribution...

M. ulcerans infections (Buruli ulcer; BU) have been reported in French Guiana since the 1960s [1]. It is striking to see that French Guiana concentrates most of the cases of BU in America with only a few cases reported in Suriname, Peru, Mexico and Bolivia in the past [2, 3]. Either BU is underdiagnosed and underreported in most of the continent; o...

Identifying and evaluating potentially suitable tools to assess the status of cetaceans in coastal waters with high levels of anthropogenic threat represents a first step towards effective cetacean conservation management. Local ecological knowledge (LEK) can often provide more extensive information on focal species and biological resources than is...

Disease emergence, in the last decades, has had increasingly disproportionate impacts on aquatic freshwater biodiversity. Here, we developed a new model based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) for predicting the risk of freshwater fish disease emergence in England. Following a rigorous training process and simulations, the proposed SVM model was val...

This review is part of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report on Europe and Central Asia (ECA) and provides a critical assessment of issues facing decision-makers, including freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem trends as well as drivers of change. Freshwater systems are well established...

Background Zoonotic pathogens respond to changes in host range and/or pathogen, vector and host ecology. Environmental changes (biodiversity, habitat changes, variability in climate), even at a local level, lead to variability in environmental pathogen dynamics and can facilitate their transmission from natural reservoirs to new susceptible hosts....

Spatio-temporal dynamics of pathogenic leptospires in urban aquatic sites in Cayenne. Sites were sampled at 6 time periods, corresponding to the dry and rainy seasons, and were tested for the presence of Leptospira sp. DNA by qPCR targetting LipL32 sequence of pathogenic strains. A site was considered positive for a CT-value < 40. A: september 2016...

Spatio-temporal dynamics of M. ulcerans DNA in urban aquatic sites in Cayenne. Sites were sampled at 6 time periods, corresponding to the dry and rainy seasons, and were tested for the presence of M. ulcerans DNA by qPCR targetting IS2404 and KR sequences. A site was considered positive when both markers had a CT-value < 38. A: september 2016, B: o...

Quantitative-PCR (qPCR) values for each site through the environmental survey. For each site LipL32 (Leptospira sp. DNA detection), IS2404 and KR (M. ulcerans DNA identification) cycle-treshold (CT) values are indicated. For rural sites, only positive sites for Leptospira sp. and/or M. ulcerans DNA are indicated. Sites with no CT-values observed ar...

Visconti, P., Elias, V., Sousa Pinto, I., Fischer, M., Ali-Zade, V., Báldi, A., Brucet, S., Bukvareva, E., Byrne, K., Caplat, P., Feest, A., Guerra, C., Gozlan, R., Jelić, D., Kikvidze, Z., Lavrillier, A., Le Roux, X., Lipka, O., Petrík, P., Schatz, B., Smelansky, I. and Viard, F. (2018): Chapter 3: Status, trends and future dynamics of biodiversit...

The genetic variability and population structure of introduced species in their native range are potentially important determinants of their invasion success, yet data on native populations are often poorly represented in relevant studies. Consequently, to determine the contribution of genetic structuring in the native range of topmouth gudgeon Pse...

International biodiversity assessments often overlook the role of emerging infectious pathogens in the decline of freshwater fish populations despite the many examples of emerging diseases in other more visible taxa on a global scale. Whilst the introduction of the rosette agent S. destruens in Europe remained an epidemiological enigma, recent find...

Introduction L’infection à Mycobacterium ulcerans (IMU) est la troisième maladie mycobactérienne la plus répandue après la tuberculose et la lèpre. À ce jour, les voies de transmission de son réservoir environnemental aux humains sont encore inconnues. En Amérique du sud, la Guyane française a le plus grand nombre d’IMU sur le continent. Cette étud...

Non-native species are often linked to the introduction of novel pathogens with detrimental effects on native biodiversity. Since Sphaerothecum destruens was first discovered as a fish pathogen in the United Kingdom, it has been identified as a potential threat to European fish biodiversity. Despite this parasite’s emergence and associated disease...