Impact of pollution on animal products : Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Impact of Pollution on Animal Products, Almaty, Kazakhstan 27-30 September 2007

The importance of pollution in Central Asia is a well-known feature but references mainly concern the impact of environmental failures on human health. The role of animals at the interface of the contamination of resources for animal feeding and drinking, and human consumption of animal products has been little studied. Yet, animals play three roles in the links between environment and human health: (i) they are the final receptor of pollutants and, therefore, can be affected by the chronic or acute toxicity of organic and non-organic pollutants present in their environment or in their food, (ii) they can be used as sentinel of environmental pollution and, therefore, assessing their status vis-à-vis the pollutants is essential to identify environmental risks, (iii) they are a provider of pollutants for humans through the consumption of their products (milk, meat, eggs, wastes). For all theses aspects, several research fields have to be solicited: veterinary sciences, epidemiology, ecology, chemistry, biochemistry, animal and human nutrition, ecotoxicology, animal production. The study of the impact of pollution on animals and animal products requires a multidisciplinary approach, including holistic and analytical aspects