50 years of the Fougères Laboratory
Located in a livestock farming region at the heart of Brittany since 1975, the Fougères Laboratory has evolved to specialise in risks associated with veterinary medicinal products and chemical contaminants in food. Tahar Ait Ali, the Laboratory’s Director, tells us about its history and activities.
What was the background to the creation of the Fougères Laboratory and how did it develop?
Tahar Ait Ali: The decision to create a laboratory in Fougères was made in 1973, when the implementation of the French Act on veterinary pharmaceuticals made it mandatory to submit marketing authorisation applications for all veterinary medicinal products. The laboratory was originally called the National Laboratory for Veterinary Medicinal Products. It began operating in 1975. In addition to reviewing thousands of veterinary drug dossiers, the Laboratory acquired expertise in analysing residues of veterinary medicinal products in food, particularly in milk. This expertise led to it being appointed Reference Laboratory for the control of veterinary medicinal product residues in foodstuffs, first at national level in 1990 and then at European level in 1991.
Due to the extension of missions related to the authorisation of veterinary medicines, a dedicated entity – the French Agency for Veterinary Medicinal Products (ANMV) – was created in 1994 on the same site in Fougères. It took over responsibility for marketing authorisations for veterinary medicinal products, while the Laboratory continued to study, monitor and conduct research into these medicines and their residues. The ANMV and the National Laboratory for Veterinary Medicinal Products were both part of the National Centre for Veterinary and Food Studies (CNEVA), which later became ANSES.
What are the Laboratory's current missions?
Tahar Ait Ali: The Fougères Laboratory studies the benefits and risks of veterinary medicinal product and disinfectant use in the food industry. It has retained its historical mission of screening for residues of veterinary medicinal products in foodstuffs of animal origin. It also studies the efficacy of antibiotics and disinfectants against micro-organisms. Since the late 1990s, it has been working to study and monitor the resistance of bacteria of animal origin to antibiotics and disinfectants, in partnership with the ANSES laboratories in Lyon and Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort. It is therefore the National Reference Laboratory for antimicrobial resistance. It also assesses the toxicological hazards of chemical contaminants in food, in particular by developing tests on the in vitro and in vivo effects of these contaminants.
What is the outlook for the Laboratory?
Tahar Ait Ali: From a One Health perspective, we are planning to develop new tools tailored to the study of the exposome, which encompasses all types of chemical exposures to which humans are subject throughout their lives. To this end, our aim in particular is to develop non-targeted approaches capable of identifying chemicals in food when these are not specifically being tested, so that we can be proactive in the event that new risks emerge.
Another aspect we are currently working on but would like to develop further is the use of cell cultures to test the effects of chemicals, as a replacement for animal testing. In particular, we are planning to develop the use of organoids, which are mini-organs created specifically for this purpose that mimic the complex functioning of a living organism.
Another challenge is the exploitation of big data. The development of artificial intelligence is an opportunity that should facilitate data analysis and processing. Our aim is to exploit big data in particular to develop “in silico” modelling, i.e. on computers. While it is currently possible to model the fate of a single compound in the body, our goal is to do this simultaneously for a group of compounds.
Lastly, climate change could end up altering the concentrations of metabolites, i.e. the substances resulting from metabolism, in the human body. We will need to take these changes into account more fully in our work. These prospects are being made possible by the high level of expertise of the scientists at the Fougères Laboratory, the quality of the technology we have been able to acquire with the help of the Brittany Regional Council, and the methodologies we use.