Med-Vet-Net Success
Med-Vet-Net is a highly successful Network-of- Excellence on Zoonoses Research funded by the European Union. It is project managed by VLA and if you require further details of the aims, partnership and outputs, please see the website: www.medvetnet.org
Campylobacter spp.
The network is now starting its fourth year of activities and VLA is responsible for the leadership of integration and research activities involving 30% of the overall network's budget. This includes the organisation of the Annual Scientific Meeting, which last year was located in Malta.
VLA actively participates in all of the overarching workpackages (WPs), ie. Virtual Institute, Strategic Integration and Communications. It is also involved in 12 of the13 ongoing research WPs, including several on Food Safety, one on zoonotic viruses and another on Q fever. We play a leading role on the 'virulotyping new and emerging Salmonella and E.coli' project, using leading edge techniques and gathering data on the virulence determinants of a unique collection of organisms from across Europe. The aim is to be able to predict future trends in population structures of these bacteria. Other food safety-associated projects include antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic protozoa and parasites, Campylobacter and host responses to infection.
Epidemiology and risk assessment experts are also involved in a several projects, including the 'development of methods for attributing human Salmonella and Campylobacter infections with different sources' and the 'development of a European consensus Campylobacter risk assessment model'. A further project on the 'development and application of GIS and spatial methods as epidemiological approaches', has produced a European 'atlas' of the distribution of human cases of Salmonella serotypes developed using data from Enternet.
VLA also leads three Special Interest Groups on 'new and emerging zoonoses', host pathogen interaction and 'wildlife zoonoses'. These groups have been set up to establish discussion networks throughout Europe and aim to develop EU funding opportunities for the future.
