Benin, supported by WHO, has the ambition to become a strategic pole for training, research and expertise in the resolution of social and health issues in Africa. To date, Benin has a scattered and incomplete public health (PH) training offer, while needs are increasing. The teaching of professions in PH is important for the socio-economic development of the country. The strengthening of PH training is part of the context of emerging health crises, partly related to demographic and environmental changes. The training of field agents, technicians and managers is fundamental for the design and management of screening, prevention/health promotion, and clinical or epidemiological research programs. The objective of the Innovation Santé Publique Internationale Recherche Enseignement à l'Université d'Abomey-Calavi (INSPIRE-UAC) project is to structure the PH training offer at all levels of the university system. At the bachelor's level, the offer will be strengthened and made more legible, in order to better prepare students to enter the master's level, but also to allow their access to qualified jobs. At the Master's level, the project proposes the creation of International Partnership Degrees (IPD). Five Master's degree courses will be offered in an MS field, including one of excellence in IPD between the three universities ("One-Health" theme). In doctoral studies, co-supervision will be increased and doctoral training will be standardized. A mobility support system will be set up to increase the national and regional attractiveness of students. The place of digital technology will be reinforced, allowing for pedagogical sharing, collaborative work and the use of innovative pedagogical devices. This project will thus allow for both quantitative and qualitative reinforcement of human capacities in PH at the UAC while ensuring equity and sustainable development.

Biodiversity loss in hotspots of biodiversity is, among other socio-ecological factors, key to understand, prevent and react to future pandemics. However, despite this knowledge, the current COVID-19 crisis highlights the limitations of the implementation of One Health approaches. A main limitation is the lack of context-adapted solutions that stakeholders (national authorities but also local communities, NGOs and private companies) could easily implement on the field. To overcome this, the MARBLES partners will build on past international projects to co-construct innovations with all stakeholders of biodiversity hotspots to reduce the risk of infectious disease emergence through biodiversity conservation and disease surveillance strategies. The activities of the project will be implemented in Europe and three tropical biodiversity hotspots in Southeast Asia, West Africa and Central America and will have the following expected impacts: • the results of the MARBLES project will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the impact of biodiversity on the risk of infectious disease emergence • Stakeholder’s engagement tools developed during the MARBLES project will facilitate the design of context-adapted biodiversity conservation and restoration strategies that reduce zoonotic risk • the surveillance strategies and pathogen detection tools developed during the MARBLES project will improve the capacities to detect emergences and stop future epidemics before they can turn into pandemics The consortium will constitute a strong multi-actor group of partners with a history of successful cooperation including academics from biomedical, environmental and social sciences, private companies, NGOs, local and international stakeholders who bring together the wide range of disciplines and expertise required to reach all the expected outcomes of the HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-11 call. Overall, the implementation of the MARBLES project in various ecological, climatic and cultural settings will allow the consortium members to develop generic innovations that could subsequently be adapted through to a wide range of socio-ecological settings, contributing to the understanding, prevention and early detection of zoonotic emerging threats globally. The embedment of the MARBLES project in the Prezode initiative will help to scale up the project innovations and disseminate cutting-edge socio-economic environmental strategies.

Cow mastitis, an inflammation of the mammary gland, is responsible for animal suffering, economic loss and a high consumption of antibiotics in dairy farms. This multi-factorial disease is influenced by pathogen infection, udder microbiome, host factors and farm management practices. Staphylococcus aureus, one of the main mastitis-causing pathogens (with Streptococcus uberis and Escherichia coli) is particularly difficult to control once in the udder, promotes co-infections, and presents zoonotic risks. S. aureus chronic mastitis is the primary reason for early culling, as no other management strategy currently appears efficient. While S. aureus can be found in most environments, in some farms it becomes prominent while in others it appears naturally controlled. As any species, it is part of an ecosystem including competitors and natural enemies which could hamper its development either in the udder or in the farm environment. EcoSA aims to study its circulation, interactions and microbial ecosystems, to identify situations that facilitate its control at the farm level. More generally, investigating dairy farms microbial ecosystems is necessary to understand the relative importance of pathogen infections, biological interactions and an imbalance of the microbial communities (dysbiosis) on mastitis occurrences, and to be able to devise new management methods for this complex disease. Our proposal plans to describe the dynamics and circulation of the main mastitis-causing pathogens in cow’s udder and gut microbiota, farm beddings and milk filter; to characterize the microbial dynamics in these compartments to identify biological interactions and dysbiosis associated with mastitis and S. aureus prominence; to evaluate pathogens and communities response to perturbations due to farming interventions (antibiotic treatment, change in feed, cleaning); and to improve management of S. aureus and mastitis by proposing new ecosystem-based management procedures. In practice, we will sample milk, feces, bedding and the milk filter and record farming interventions in commercial farms with high or low S. aureus abundance during the 20 weeks period spent in housing (where mastitis incidence is the highest) for two years. We will use metagenomics, bacterial cultures, qPCR and somatic cell counts to detect commensal bacteria, pathogen abundances, bacteriophage abundances and the host immune response across this period. Data will be used to infer the parameters of a predictive dynamical model representing microbial growth and interactions, perturbations and immigration, which will support the investigation of pathogen dynamics and circulation, microbial communities states and state shifts associated with S. aureus prominence, and the respective roles of dysbiosis, de novo infections and farming interventions in mastitis. Based on dynamical modelling and dialog with dairy farmers, we will propose management methods for mastitis evaluated in silico and tailored to their socio-economic constraints, which could take the form of a surveillance system for mastitis pathogens and ecosystem shift, bacterial augmentation by oral route, topical application or the environment, and/or recommendations on farming interventions to protect or restore beneficial microbial communities. We expect the results of this project to provide breakthroughs in the understanding of mastitis, in microbial ecology and dynamical modelling; but also to have major health and socio-economic impacts by reducing the need for antibiotic usage in dairy farms, improving farm animal health and wellbeing and the farmer’s economic security. If successful, our innovative proposal could be a precursor to the development of new agro-ecological farming solutions to pathogen control, helping farms transition to sustainable farming practices in line with societal demand for more ethic breeding systems.