Partner 4 Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI)
The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) is a federal research institute and independent higher federal authority under the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. At present, the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut has approximately 900 employees in eleven institutes at six locations. The work of the FLI focuses on farm animal health and welfare and on the protection of humans from zoonoses. The FLI is one of the leading institutes for animal health in Europe. The project-related major tasks are the prevention of diseases by developing and improving new diagnostic technologies including rapid diagnostics, providing the background for modern surveillance and control strategies for animal diseases and zoonoses. The FLI does basic and applied research in different scientific fields, including epidemiology, immunology, virology, bacteriology, and parasitology. The Institute of Diagnostic Virology (IVD) e.g. studies important virus diseases of animals, mainly in terms of diagnosis, differential diagnosis, rapid detection and molecular epidemiology. Special attention is given to notifiable diseases and zoonoses. Nineteen different reference laboratories, e.g. for Avian Influenza (also OIE and FAO reference laboratory), Foot-and-Mouth-Disease or African Swine Fever are part of the institute. In addition, development of new molecular diagnostics, including next generation sequencing techniques (454/Roche or Illumina platforms), automated nucleic acid extraction, DNA chip technology and real-time (multiplex) PCR are major tasks. The Institute of Epidemiology e.g. conducts research on the epidemiology of endemic animal diseases (e.g. avian influenza, bluetongue disease, classical swine fever, rabies) and on the prevention of non-endemic infectious diseases (risk assessment, early warning systems). Furthermore, the institute fulfils official tasks, particularly in connection with the animal disease reporting system (TSN) and the project TRACES of the member states of the European Union, and contributes to the development of electronic tools for animal disease management. The FLI is a partner in numerous EU projects, e.g. in the Network of Excellence “EPIZONE”, the FP7 projects “RAPIDIA-Field” (point of care testing) and “EMPERIE” (virus discovery), “ANTIGONE”, the EMIDA-Project about next generation sequencing “EPISEQ”, and the RISKSUR-project, which aims at producing a new generation of methodologies and tools for cost- effective risk-based animal health surveillance systems.
Principle Investigator: Martin Beer,
martin.beer@fli.bund.de