United Kingdom commits £20.5M to combat worldwide animal diseases

Over the next five years the Zoonoses and Emerging Livestock Systems (ZELS) programme will fund 11 projects in developing countries in Africa, south Asia and south east Asia, bringing together expertise from the human and animal health sectors. In addition, £1.5M of funding will give 15 students from the UK and developing countries doctoral training in ZELS-related research.

The programme is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council (ESRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

By bringing together world-class scientists from various disciplines and from around the globe, the programme aims to improve the health and well-being of animals, humans and the environment and, ultimately, enhance the lives of millions of people.

The funded ZELS projects are:

• Looking at factors affecting transmission of zoonotic pathogens from livestock to people.
• Zoonoses in Livestock in Kenya (ZooLINK).
• Establishing a strategy to control brucellosis in dairy herds of West and Central Africa.
• Developing the evidence base to control brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Combating bird flu by developing new diagnostic tools and vaccines.
• An integrated approach for surveillance and control of zoonoses in emerging livestock systems.
• Controlling and monitoring emerging zoonoses in the poultry farming and trading system in Bangladesh.
• Tackling Human African Trypanosomiasis on the edge of wilderness areas.
• Epidemiology and evolution of zoonotic schistosomiasis in a changing world.
• Controlling Bovine Tuberculosis in Ethiopia.
• Food safety hazards in emerging livestock meat pathways (HAZEL).