AS WE face the possibility of a swine flu pandemic, there is hope from the University of Liverpool’s Leahurst centre in Neston.
Under its umbrella, the UK National Centre for Zoonosis was set up in December 2007 and for the first time anywhere, brings together medical and veterinary sciences dedicated to the study of animal-borne human diseases.
Zoonosis are diseases that originate in animals but can infect humans.
The new centre at Leahurst, shares the site with the university’s veterinary campus because of the importance of understanding the diseases in animals as well as people.
Prof Malcolm Bennett, co-director of the centre and Dean of Veterinary Sciences, said: “The idea was to bring together everyone doing zoonosis research.
“Liverpool University is an ideal place for the national zoonosis centre as it has a broad range of appropriate faculties, is not too big and has good relations with government bodies.
“This means we can easily have a dialogue with medics, vets, microbiologists, ecologists, epidemiologists and statisticians.”
The centre has about a dozen core staff and is equipped with new laboratories.
Professor Bennett added: “Plenty of research at Liverpool and elsewhere has gone into the study of animal-borne human diseases. But the idea to bring together the strands from different disciplines was only ‘invented’ about three years ago.”
