The INSSICCA research project: INnovative Strategies to establish Safe livestock rearing systems In Chlordecone Contaminated Areas
Abstract
The chlorinated polycyclic ketone pesticide chlordecone (CLD) was used from 1971 until 1993 in the French West Indies to fight against the banana black weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus). Its application resulted in a long term pollution of soils which is thought to last 5 to 7 centuries for the heaviest polluted soils. About 1/4 of the total agricultural acreage of the two French overseas departments (Guadeloupe, Martinique) are moderately to heavily polluted and national survey plans carried out since 2008 in slaughterhouses revealed unexpected contamination of animal products. A research program involving a broad research network is currently on going. It aims at evaluating local animal rearing systems in terms of livestock exposure to CLD, at characterizing the bioavailability of CLD, its behavior and metabolization in the animal organism, and at establishing strategies to bind CLD via activated carbon in the digestive tract. On the basis of the results obtained, safe local livestock rearing systems will be proposed in agricultural areas historically contaminated by CLD, and assessed in terms of economical efficiency and social acceptability. Preliminary results showed that, in tropical conditions, ingestion of soil is far from being negligible but it can be modulated by the forage offer in order to reduce livestock exposure to CLD. Regarding the potential to bind CLD in order to limit its absorption, the most promising results are obtained when activated carbon is added and maturated into contaminated soil. Where such approaches cannot be applied, there is a remaining potential to decontaminate the animals by applying a depuration period: CLD half lives in the organism are currently established. Such results are of great importance and will allow in a near future to establish innovative safe local livestock rearing systems in agricultural areas historically contaminated by CLD. The approaches implemented in this project and the proposed innovative strategies to secure the rearing systems have also to be considered as a “model approach” to be applied further in organic pollutant contaminated areas worldwide.
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