At the beginning of 2006 bird flu was the main topic in the media.
There were fears that the pathogen could adapt to humans and that the disease would then pose a serious threat to health. So far, these fears have proved unfounded. Diseases caused by Salmonella or other pathogens such as Campylobacter and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), in Europe may be far less spectacular but they do have a much bigger impact on health and the national economy. In Germany alone 55,000 cases of campylobacteriosis and 52,000 cases of salmonellosis were reported last year, and the headlines are currently dominated by news of EHEC infections. In the European Union alone, zoonoses of this kind, i.e. diseases caused by pathogens that cross from animals to humans, generate costs of more than EUR 6 billion.
So where is there a need for more intensive research and what prevention strategies are called for? To answer this and similar questions, a three-day meeting held at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Berlin, will commence today. Scientists from the zoonoses network Med-Vet-Net are joining with experts from the American Food Safety Research Consortium (FSRC) to discuss how to establish meaningful scientific priority setting for the control of zoonotic pathogens given the scarcity of funds and resources. The conference will seek to elucidate key scientific questions, identify opportunities for the promotion of research and optimise global cooperation in this field.