Information about Research on Zoonoses

The term zoonosis derives from the Greek words zoon (creature) and nosos (illness). Zoonoses are infectious diseases caused by bacteria, parasites, fungi, prions or viruses, and they can be transmitted between animals and humans. Transmission is possible by direct contact, living vectors like ticks or mosquitoes, or food of animal origin, e. g. milk products, eggs or meat. Zoonoses include both: well-known and newly emerging infectious diseases. Due to the rapid world population growth, the increasing mobility, the intensive animal husbandry and the climate change, the study of zoonoses becomes ever more important.

Universities, federal institutes as well as specialized research centres are involved in zoonoses research in Germany. A great variety of working groups, single projects and large networks exist in parallel. Therefore a close collaboration between natural scientists of all fields is particularly important to ensure a broad exchange of knowledge and experiences.

The main foci of research are:

• isolation and characterization of zoonotic agents
• development and validation of infection models
• epidemiological studies of zoonotic agents
• mechanisms of pathogenesis
• diagnosis of zoonoses
• immune answer, immunity and development of vaccines
• therapeutics and approaches to therapy
• prevention and control methods of zoonotic infections
• development of early warning systems
• design and application of risk analysis models
• risk analyses