Institute for Epidemiology
| Institute for Epidemiology | |
|---|---|
| Category: | Federal Research Institute |
| Carrier: | Friedrich Loeffler Institute |
| Legal form of the carrier: | Higher federal authority |
| Seat of the wearer: | Greifswald , Riems Island |
| Facility location: | Riems Island |
| Type of research: | Departmental research |
| Subjects: | Natural sciences |
| Areas of expertise: | Veterinary medicine |
| Basic funding: | Federal Government ( BMELV ) |
| Management: | Franz J. Conraths |
| Homepage: | www.fli.bund.de |
The Institute for Epidemiology (IfE) is a research facility of the Federal Republic of Germany at the higher federal authority Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) on the island of Riems . The FLI also bears the additional designation “Federal Research Institute for Animal Health”. The institute primarily conducts departmental research for the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection . The research tasks of the IfE are in the field of veterinary medicine .
history
The history of the Institute for Epidemiology in Wusterhausen goes back to the beginning of the 1960s when a district veterinary clinic was built here. Such facilities existed in all districts of the GDR ; they primarily served the treatment of sick breeding and farm animals from farms. The district veterinary clinic was founded in 1971 in a district of the Institute of Veterinary converted (BIV), as the range of tasks had been increased significantly, in 1975 the District Institute Wusterhausen was merged with the District Department of Veterinary Potsdam to a facility.
By a Council of Ministers decision came in the first half of the 1980s to form the National Institute for epizootiology and animal disease control (SIFET) at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and food industry of the GDR.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the SIFET Institute was incorporated into the "Federal Research Center for Virus Diseases of Animals" (BFAV), whose headquarters were in Tübingen at the time and has been on the island of Riems since 1997.
The Federal Research Institute BFAV was renamed in 2004 to “Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut” (FLI) with the additional designation “Federal Research Institute for Animal Health”.
research
The Institute for Epidemiology deals with the causes and consequences of domestic animal diseases (e.g. BSE , classical swine fever , rabies ), the prevention of non-native infectious diseases (risk assessments at importation, early warning systems) and the biomathematical and epidemiological basis of risk assessment .
The research focuses on animal diseases, but also other animal diseases with economic and / or zoonotic importance, for example Q fever , chlamydiosis , salmonellosis , infections with enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli , toxoplasmosis , neosporosis and echinococcosis . The reservoir function of different animal populations for animal disease pathogens and economically important diseases of domestic animals is examined.
With modern epidemiological methods, which also make use of mathematical models and geographical information systems, new insights are gained which are incorporated into practical animal disease control.
Sovereign tasks
In addition, the institute performs sovereign tasks , in particular in connection with the animal disease message system (TSN) and the TRACES project of the member states of the European Union .
Animal Disease Messaging System TSN
In 1992, with the nationwide introduction of documenting intra-community animal traffic, every veterinary office in Germany was equipped with a personal computer and a modem. It was thus possible to replace the previous "paper-based" reporting on the occurrence of animal diseases with an electronic reporting system that had to be created.
Since 1995, this system has been the official reporting system for the occurrence of animal diseases under the leadership of the Institute for Epidemiology, so that since then there has been a complete and homogeneous database of all notifiable animal disease outbreaks in Germany.
Animal transport control system TRACES
The abbreviation stands TRACES "for TRA de C ontrol and E xpert S ystem" and is a Web application on behalf of the European Commission was developed. With the help of this system a better control and traceability of animal transports and transports of animal products should be achieved.
The Institute for Epidemiology in Wusterhausen is responsible for the technical implementation and support at the federal level.