Africa economy
Environmental monitoring, a unique laboratory at the port of Cotonou
Audio 02:22
A tug maneuvers in the autonomous port of Cotonou in Benin, May 28, 2019 (illustration image).
© Prosper Dagnitche / AFP
By: Olivier Rogez Follow
3 mins
It is a unique innovation of its kind in West Africa, the Autonomous Port of Cotonou has equipped itself with an environmental monitoring platform, the result of a collaboration between the port and the University of Abomey-Calavi. , the French IRD (Institute for Research and Development) and Belgian cooperation.
The goal is to monitor viruses and invasive species entering and leaving the port.
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“
You are precisely at the level of the premises of the port platform for environmental surveillance which deals with biological invasions…
”: Sylvestre Badou is a graduate of the University of Abomey-Calavi.
With a handful of other young Beninese scientists, he spends his days tracking down the populations who live hidden in the warehouses of the port of Cotonou, in the holds of ships and in ballast water.
Their targets: insects, viruses and rodents…
“
Ports are gateways for these species which are transported through trade,
” explains Sylvestre Badou
.
Our goal is both to be able to prevent, but also to protect the port actors, because from the moment the rodents manage to enter the port of Cotonou, they are likely to spread in the city, and why not even into the hinterland countries that use the port of Cotonou as a transit port.
»
Functional since 2021, the laboratory has already detected a hemorrhagic fever virus of Vietnamese origin, found on a rodent captured in warehouses.
The successes of this monitoring platform are to the credit of the University of Abomey-Calavi, and also of its partners, the IRD, the French scientific cooperation, and the Enabel, the Belgian technical cooperation which financed the project.
Paul-Henri Dossou, also a scientist, takes care of the laboratory's databases.
"
Benin is one of the first countries in Africa to have acquired such a jewel,
" says Paul-Henri Dossou.
From what I know, in the West, most of the work is subcontracted by external laboratories which do not depend on the ports or the civil service.
And we hope to be a "school case" and that other countries in Africa can follow suit
»
Equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, the platform makes it possible to analyze the genomes of rodents, in particular which strengthens the means of combating their proliferation.
“
Based on our genetic analyses, if I have two warehouses, I can know if they are exchanging individuals between them
,” explains Sylvestre Badou.
In
such a way that I can advise the port authorities to carry out the deratting simultaneously.
These analyzes also allow me to go further, and to monitor the resistance of rodents to the anticoagulants that are used at the port level.
And from there, I am able to propose new molecules which will make it possible to regulate the population of rodents.
»
This laboratory serves to protect not only port workers and the whole country against viruses and invasive species, it also protects Benin's trading partners, as the surveillance also aims to prevent the spread of local diseases to other countries. other continents.
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