A new anti-norovirus weapon, unique in France, is being tested to save the oysters of the Thau lagoon

Les huîtres des parcs de l’étang de Thau seront-elles définitivement débarrassées du norovirus ? Midi Libre – KELMAN MARTI

The NoVLess project, currently being installed, aims to remove the norovirus from the water in which the oysters of the Thau lagoon are bathed.

We cannot recommend the norovirus highly enough, if it reads Midi Libre, to avoid entering the Thau lagoon immediately. This could get heated for him. In mid-November, Oxyvir was presented, a device designed to monitor its arrival and thus remove shellfish from the water before it hits them. Because norovirus in a shellfish can trigger gastroenteritis epidemics and closures of the lagoon for at least 28 days with a significant financial impact on already drained farms.

A project already tested on fish

Second blow for norovirus at the beginning of December. The launch of the experimental phase of a project – unique in France – aimed at testing an innovative technology for extracting it from shellfish has been unveiled. “The Coldep company, which invented the process, tested it on a fish virus that is similar to norovirus, explains Romain Pete, facilitator of the lagoon observation network that depends on the Syndicat mixte du bassin de Thau. We said to ourselves that we had to test it on water but also on shellfish.”

Experimentation at the biology station

This experiment will therefore be done in two stages. While the device is being installed at the Plagette biology station these days, the first will be done very quickly. It will be a question of verifying whether NoVLess (the nickname of the concept) is effective in removing any presence of norovirus in water. With a very simple basic principle: “it is a physical process that uses the surface tension of very small air bubbles” , explains the scientist.

The virtues of very small bubbles

As they rise in a column of water, these very fine air bubbles take charge of all the elements present. By bursting at the top, they then release them. “They then accumulate in a sort of foam which is regularly evacuated”, explains Romain Pete. If all goes well, the norovirus, which will be placed in the wave, will disappear. It will be the company IAGE, specialized in biotechnology, which will then ensure the measurements to verify it. “Logically, we should know very quickly if it is effective.”

28 days of testing for contaminated shellfish

However, it will be much longer for the second phase. On this occasion, starting in January, shellfish knowingly contaminated will be placed in the same column of water. The device will then run for twenty-eight days to be sure that the norovirus concentrated in the oysters is, little by little, digested by the shellfish. The idea is to know from how long the norovirus disappears in order to possibly reduce the legal closure time of these 28 days.“Once everything is finished, it will be time for analyses. We should know more during the spring, announces the scientist. In any case, this is completely complementary to the anticipatory fight of the Oxyvir project.”

How, then, to deploy it in the field ?

And if the news is good, it will then be necessary to establish with the profession – the Regional Committee for Mediterranean Shellfish Farming is of course a stakeholder – a means of deploying this technology in the field. Impossible, in fact, to continuously filter all the water in the pond… “We can imagine a mobile unit or even a central point on the scale of the ports”, imagines the facilitator of the lagoon observation network. But since some farms are already equipped with a bubble system to remove bacteria, a slight technical modification would perhaps be enough to have NoVLess at home. The norovirus will not be able to say that it has not been warned.

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