Sharks, Rays, and Chimeras of the French West Indies: Diversity, Status, and Conservation Needs Assessment

Background French West Indies, like the other Caribbean territories, are currently undergoing a nutrition transition. Little is known about how migration and subsequent changes in food habits could influence adherence to specific dietary patterns. Our study aimed to assess dietary intake among French West Indians who live in and/or were born in the French West Indies, compared with individuals born and living in mainland France. Methods 1,094 participants from the NutriNet-Santé e-cohort, prospectively included between 2009-2019, were categorized into 4 subgroups: born and living in the French West Indies (West Indies/West Indies WW; n = 172); born in the West Indies and living in France Mainland (West Indies/mainland, WM n = 317); born in France Mainland and living in the French West Indies (mainland/West Indies, MW n = 288) and those born and living in Mainland France (mainland/mainland, MM n = 317). We compared the four subgroups on their nutritional quality of the diet using data provided by 24h records, and sociodemographic, lifestyle and anthropometric characteristics. The association between dietary patterns and migration status was estimated by polytomous logistic regression models. Results The WM group had consumptions reflecting an intermediate nutritional quality between the WW and the MM groups, with higher consumption of plant-based foods. The WM and WW groups were more likely to adhere both to a traditional dietary pattern from the West Indies (tubers grown in the West Indies, legumes, fish and offal) and, to a lesser extent, a convenient dietary pattern (high in ultra-processed foods), compared to MM, confirming the ongoing nutrition transition. Conclusions Migrants from French West Indies may have changed their traditional dietary habits, suggesting an influence of the environment. Migrants presented both potentially protective and detrimental dietary patterns compared to their peers born in mainland France due to the maintenance of cultural habits. Key messages • Migration may influence food habits for migrants between the French West Indies and Mainland France. • The nutrition transition is on going in the French West Indies, representing a public health issue.

Descriptions of the epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have seldom been produced in the Caribbean, which is a major tourism destination. Using DNA microarrays and spa typing, we characterized 85 MRSA isolates from human skin and soft-tissue infections from five different islands. In the French West Indies (n = 72), the most frequently isolated clones were the same clones that are specifically isolated from mainland France [Lyon (n = 35) and Geraldine (n = 11) clones], whereas the clones that were most frequently isolated from the other islands (n = 13) corresponded with clones that have a worldwide endemic spread [Vienna/Hungarian/Brazilian (n = 5), Panton Valentine leukocidin-positive USA300 (n = 4), New York/Japan (n = 2), and pediatric (n = 1) clones]. The distribution of the major MRSA clones in the French (Guadeloupe and Martinique) and non-French West Indies (Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago) is different, and the clones most closely resemble those found in the home countries of the travelers who visit the islands most frequently. The distribution might be affected by tourist migration, which is specific to each island.

Reviewed by: For the Health of the Enslaved: Slaves, medicine and power in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848 Justin Roberts For the Health of the Enslaved: Slaves, medicine and power in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848 Niklas Thode Jensen . Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2012. The vast majority of the scholarship on West Indian sugar slavery has focused on British and, to a lesser extent, French West Indian sugar plantations. Few scholars have the necessary language skills to explore sugar slavery in the Danish and Dutch West Indies. In For the Health of the Enslaved: Slaves, medicine and power in the Danish West Indies, 1803-1848, Niklas Thode Jensen offers us a rare opportunity to learn about aspects of sugar planting and its impact on the enslaved in St. Croix, the primary sugar island in the Danish West Indies. Yet, what Jensen's study ultimately proves is that there was little substantial difference between the Danish, British and French West Indies when it came to how sugar was grown, how labor was managed and the impact of sugar on enslaved bodies. Jensen explores the specific causes of death and disease among sugar slaves after the Danish abolition of the slave trade. He relies on recent scientific studies and a "modern biomedical conceptual frame" (8) to try to determine exactly why sugar production was so deadly for enslaved workers. In doing so, he privileges a conventional Western medical viewpoint as a framework for explanation. This approach is both Eurocentric and whiggish, implying that more advanced European-derived medical traditions can better explain early modern death and disease. In essence, he continues to examine enslaved bodies through the colonizing gaze. To understand the health of the enslaved, Jensen is often forced to speculate to arrive at estimates of particulars such as the caloric expenditures of sugar workers or the amount of provisions that a field would yield. He draws on evidence from modern sugar workers or from what he calls "developing countries" to arrive at his estimates (168). One has to wonder about the applicability of such evidence to an enslaved sugar society nearly two hundred years ago. Sugar workers in the modern world may be working at a different pace and with different tools and varieties of cane. Developmental models rely on a stage-based and progressive theory of history that has long since been discarded by most historians. Jensen concludes his study of the health of enslaved sugar workers by arguing that "workload," as other scholars have suggested for British West Indian sugar plantations, was not the determinative factor in the high levels of mortality and morbidity on sugar plantations (259). Instead, Jensen says, it "was a larger complex of synergistic factors behind the living conditions of the enslaved on the sugar plantations that caused the morbidity and mortality" (250). For Jensen, such factors include housing, nutrition, food storage, parasites and water supply. He does acknowledge, however, that the work in early modern cane production was brutal and that "the energy forced from the enslaved during the working day was rising during this period" (135, punctuation altered). Jensen systematically compares his findings about health care and slave mortality and morbidity in St. Croix to the British and French West Indies and he finds, for the most part, almost no difference. Jensen's most significant comparative observation is that "what made St. Croix different was the degree of government control of the health of the enslaved" (259). He also notes that with regard to government policies, Danish colonial administrators were less concerned with reducing the workload of the enslaved than advocates of the amelioration of slavery were in the British West Indies. Jensen closely examines how the Danish colonial administration tried to improve three key areas in plantation health care: the nutrition of the enslaved, the use of smallpox vaccinations among the enslaved and the training of midwives on plantations. He argues, not surprisingly, that the colonial administration's policies in these areas drew on Danish models and he suggests that "the reason for the stronger central control of the health services in the Danish West Indies was the health services in the mother country were under strong, centralized control...

Four natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster, three from Guadeloupe and one from Martinique (French West Indies), were studied with respect to four types of genetically determined traits, namely allozyme frequencies, morphology, ethanol tolerance, and oviposition rhythm. These populations were compared to European (France) and tropical African populations, and, with respect to allozymes alone, to an American population. The four populations from the West Indies were found to be genetically similar; this may reflect a common historical origin, or an adaptive response to similar environmental pressures or possibly some gene flow between the two islands. The comparisons with distant populations led to different conclusions depending upon the trait considered. In the case of allozymes, flies from the West Indies were more similar to tropical African populations than to an American population from Texas, but the main difference observed was in comparison with European populations. The morphology of the West Indies flies resembled a smaller, tropical type, but the size was even smaller than observed in Africa. Both ethanol tolerance and oviposition rhythm were intermediate between flies from tropical Africa and Europe. All these results can be explained in terms of interactions between selection imposed by a tropical environment and the genetic properties of the founder population which first colonized the islands.

SummaryA list of 25 bee species in the families Apidae and Megachilidae is provided for the French West Indies (FWI) along with floral host records from 260 plant species in 71 families. Four species are newly recorded for some islands, as follows: Coelioxys abdominalis Guérin, 1844, new island record for Marie-Galante and Martinique, Centris decolorata Lepeletier, 1841, new island record for Marie-Galante, Melissodes rufodentatus Smith, 1854, is newly recorded from Guadeloupe and Mesoplia azurea (Lepeletier & Serville, 1825) from La Désirade. The bee fauna of the FWI is mostly composed of species that occur (or may be expected to occur) throughout much of the West Indies, combined with species that are widely distributed on the mainland and a proportion of regionally endemic species. In addition to these elements, there appear to be at least a few locally endemic species. A few species of bees appear to be oligolectic; their host plants, however, are visited by a wide variety of bees and other insects. There is only one intentionally introduced bee in Guadeloupe, the European honey bee Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758, and three non-native bees that reached the FWI from other parts of the Caribbean and the mainland: Megachile (Pseudomegachile) lanata (Fabricius, 1775), M. (Callomegachile) rufipennis (Fabricius, 1793) and M. (Eutricharaea) concinna Smith, 1879. Honey bees are often extremely abundant, and dominate nectar and pollen resources in ways that are disruptive to native bees. Although it is easy to observe individual honey bees displacing individual native bees on flowers, there are no data on the ecological effects of honey bees on native pollinators in the FWI.

BackgroundAtypical parkinsonian syndromes are highly prevalent in the French West Indies (FWI), making up 70% of degenerative parkinsonisms and including "Caribbean Atypical Parkinsonism". Environmental neurotoxins from Annonaceae plants are implicated. Despite close ties, parkinsonism data for French Guiana remain limited.ObjectiveThis study aimed to compare atypical parkinsonism frequencies between French Guiana and FWI, assess clinical characteristics in French Guiana, and evaluate potential environmental toxin exposure.MethodsDegenerative parkinsonism patients were recruited from a community-based population in French Guiana and compared with a FWI cohort.ResultsAmong 372 patients (67 from French Guiana, 305 from FWI), atypical parkinsonian syndromes accounted for 41.8% in French Guiana, lower than in FWI (66.2%, p < 0.001). In French Guiana, these syndromes were more common in males (sex-ratio: 3 vs. 1.22 in FWI, p = 0.044; adjusted p-value = 0.281) and often involved cerebellar symptoms (p < 0.001). Cases not fitting classical subtypes were classified as "other atypical parkinsonian syndromes" (35.7% in French Guiana, 41.6% in FWI), with a supranuclear palsy-like phenotype often presenting with additional rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, hallucinations, or orthostatic hypotension. Annonaceae consumption was higher in FWI (93%) than in French Guiana (79.2%, p < 0.001), while alcohol use was more common in French Guiana (p = 0.005).ConclusionsAtypical parkinsonism in French Guiana resembles that in FWI but is less common, with an intermediate prevalence between Caucasian and Caribbean populations. Shared environmental factors, such as Annonaceae exposure, may contribute to this presentation, supporting the term "Caribbean Atypical Parkinsonism" for both regions.

After 1783 and the presentation of a Quaker petition to Parliament, a highly organized campaign for the immediate abolition of the slave trade gained strong public support. Until 1788, Buke seems to have maintained his preference for the comprehensive reforms over a long period that he had outlined in his Negro Code. In the parliamentary debates from 1788 to 1791, however, he openly sided with immediate abolition. Thereafter, evidently concerned by the extent to which abolition of the slave trade was coming to be identified with other radical reforms, which he deplored, and perhaps concerned at the prospect that revolutionary upheavals in the French West Indies would spread to the British islands, he reverted to being an advocate of gradual reform. He submitted his Code to ministers in 1792 and it was later taken up by those who were looking for an alternative to abolition. By then, the West Indies were taking a lower place than the threat of Revolutionary France in Burke’s calculations. In previous wars he had pressed for British resources to be sent to the West Indies. Now he regarded West Indian campaigns as a diversion from the European war. At the very end of his life, however, the resources of the West Indies helped to relieve his acute financial difficulties. He was awarded a crown pension on funds derived from West Indian duties.

Banana production is a key economic resource in the French West Indies. It is essential that growers in this region enhance their sales by proposing new products-such as mountain bananas-in response to high market competition from other exporting regions where production costs are lower. The quality of mountain bananas is officially recognised in Europe on the basis of a real taste difference. All French West Indian bananas grown at altitudes over 250 m ASL according to specifications can be sold under the mountain banana label. Mountain banana features can be assessed via objective data. At harvest stage, mountain bananas are denser, bulkier and less susceptible to wound anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum musae, than lowland bananas, probably because of their higher mechanical resistance. Sensorial differences have also been documented in ripe bananas. At the same harvest stage and under identical ripening conditions, mountain bananas have a firmer texture, more intense yellowish pulp, and higher sugar and aromatic compound contents. A jury taste test analysis confirmed the sensorial differences between lowland and mountain bananas. The results of a multisite study indicated that temperature and rainfall during bunch growth are the main factors that distinguish mountain bananas. (Resume d'auteur)

This survey deals with the Biscogniauxia taxa collected in the French West Indies in the course of an ongoing inventorial work on the mycobiota of these islands initiated in 2003. Based on the evaluation and comparison of their morphological characters, fourteen taxa are described, illustrated and discussed, including four new taxa, viz.: B. breviappendiculata, B. martinicensis, B. nigropapillata and B. sinuosa var. macrospora and a collection of uncertain taxonomic position tentatively regarded as related to B. uniapiculata. The nine known taxa that we recorded include B. capnodes, B. capnodes var. limoniispora, B. capnodes var. theissenii, B. citriformis, B. citriformis var. macrospora, B. grenadensis, B. philippinensis, B. uniapiculata and B. viscosicentra. Only three of the taxa that we report here were already known from the Caribbean, viz.: B. grenadensis, B. uniapiculata and B. cf. uniapiculata, and all are new to the French West Indies, except the latter which was collected in Guadeloupe. A dichotomous identification key and a synoptical table of ascospores are presented as well

Through this study are presented the results of a first test of leachate recirculation on landfill methane production in Guadeloupe archipelago (at the North of the Lesser Antilles, French West Indies, island tropical and humid climate). In French West Indies, methane produced by landfilling is commonly flared without energy recovery. In this paper, assessment is made of the potential for leachate recirculation to increase methane production for energetic purpose in a tropical area. This process could also rapidly reduce the volume of leachate to be treated. The results obtained here show that by injecting 5 m3 of leachate in several draining leachate wells, a sharp increase in the proportion of methane in biogas is observed just a few days after. The older the waste is, the more efficient this process seems to be. In some parts of the waste dome, the methane proportion is nearly doubled at the biogas wellhead. In island context, leachate recirculation could be a long-term solution to produce energy assuming that the quantity of solid waste sent to landfill remains sufficient to maintain a viable operation of the waste dome, to reduce costs of leachate treatment and to create new space for waste storage.

Particularities of peripheral arterial disease managed in vascular surgery in the French West Indies

Unlike research in the Anglophone West Indies, research in the French West Indies has only very recently developed the idea of the existence of a peasant social group in the plantation societies of Guadeloupe and Martinique. The fragility and instability of the collective identity in the French West Indies has served as a principal argument to support the view that the group is not a peasantry but a mere by-product of the plantation system. The idea of the absence of a real process of taking control of space or of a sort of intimate history with space occurs in some writings to explain this weakness of collective sense. Far from refuting the argument which firmly links the identity question to that of space, I shall reinforce it but in order to show that, on the contrary, there arc good grounds for affirming the existence, in the case of the peasant group in Martinique, of an original social experience in which space is strongly mobilised. In doing this, my intention is also to add weight to a theoretical point of view which shows the strength of the ties between space and identity, given that the peasant world in Martinique provides a paradigmatic example of the undeniable power of these ties.

Secret Cures of Slaves: People, Plants, and Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

The emergence of azole resistant Aspergillus spp., especially Aspergillus fumigatus, has been described in several countries around the world with varying prevalence depending on the country. To our knowledge, azole resistance in Aspergillus spp. has not been reported in the West Indies yet. In this study, we investigated the antifungal susceptibility of clinical and environmental isolates of Aspergillus spp. from Martinique, and the potential resistance mechanisms associated with mutations in cyp51A gene. Overall, 208 Aspergillus isolates were recovered from clinical samples (n = 45) and environmental soil samples (n = 163). They were screened for resistance to azole drugs using selective culture media. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC) towards voriconazole, itraconazole, posaconazole and isavuconazole, as shown by the resistant isolates, were determined using the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) microdilution broth method. Eight isolates (A. fumigatus, n = 6 and A. terreus, n = 2) had high MIC for at least one azole drug. The sequencing of cyp51A gene revealed the mutations G54R and TR34/L98H in two A. fumigatus clinical isolates. Our study showed for the first time the presence of azole resistance in A. fumigatus and A. terreus isolates in the French West Indies.

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography is a non-invasive ultrasound technique that uses high-frequency sound waves to measure blood flow velocities in the cerebral vasculature. This review analyzes TCD research in the Caribbean region using a bibliometric analysis of 29 articles from PubMed. The articles were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2016 and the VOSviewer software (Van Eck and Waltman, Leiden University,Centre for Science and Technology Studies(CWTS),www.vosviewer.com) and characterized various aspects of TCD research, including countries, research themes, authorship, journals, affiliations, and keywords. The majority of the 29 publications came from Cuba (38%), followed by the French West Indies (22%) and Jamaica (20%). Most TCD research focused on sickle cell disease (SCD), accounting for 45% of the studies, followed by 21% of articles on vasospasm and subarachnoid hemorrhage. The use of TCD in brain death and neuro-intensive care was also explored, constituting 17% of the studies. Alternative TCD-monitored treatment options for SCD, such as stem cell transplantation and hydroxyurea, were also frequently investigated. The most productive institutions were Hospital Clínico-Quirúrgico Hermanos Ameijeiras in Havana, Cuba, the Sickle Cell Unit at the University of West Indies (UWI) Mona in Jamaica, the Medical-Surgical Research Center (CIMEQ) in Havana, Cuba, and the SCD Reference Center in Guadeloupe and Martinique in the French West Indies. TCD has been identified as a cost-effective tool for real-time monitoring of cerebral blood flow in many clinical settings, including stroke and SCD, which are prevalent in the Caribbean. Although there is an increase in the trend of using TCD for neuromonitoring in the Caribbean, gaps still exist. Capacity-building initiatives, such as training programs for healthcare providers and the development of local TCD research networks, can improve access to TCD in resource-constrained settings to treat and neuromonitor patients cost-effectively.