European VetBioNet Network: The Fight Against Infectious Animal Diseases Is Underway

The goal of the European integrated infrastructure project VetBioNet* is to establish a network of animal health research facilities and strengthen international cooperation to better control and prevent animal diseases, particularly zoonoses. This new scientific network, launched on April 4 and 5, 2017, in Tours, brings together some thirty partners from fourteen countries around the world, including nine European Union member states. Coordinated by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), it receives five years of funding (2017–2021) from the European Commission totaling 10 million euros.   The VetBioNet (Veterinary Biocontained Research Facility Network) shared veterinary infrastructure network aims to strengthen current European capacities and expertise in order to address the challenges posed by emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in animals. It comprises a total of thirty academic and private partners, both in Europe (France**, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Ireland, and Italy) and outside Europe (Switzerland, Kenya, the United States, Canada, and Australia). It will provide international research teams with easier access to state-of-the-art European infectious disease research platforms, as well as to the technological resources and tools developed by partner organizations. To achieve its objectives, VetBioNet will need to:

• establish its network (comprising state-of-the-art European infectious disease research infrastructures, international organizations, and industrial partners) dedicated to advanced research on epizootic and zoonotic diseases and to promoting technological developments;
• facilitate transnational access to resources and tools for combating infectious animal diseases developed by the network’s infrastructures (including high-security experimental facilities and BSL-3 laboratories, technology platforms, and sample collections);
• harmonize best practices and promote the use of global standards in European BSL-3 research infrastructures;
• improve the preparedness of key European BSL-3 research infrastructures to accelerate their response capacity to (re)emerging epizootic and zoonotic threats.

  Ultimately, this international cooperation in the fields of infectious disease research, veterinary diagnostics, and therapeutics should contribute to the advancement and sharing of knowledge—particularly regarding the relationships between hosts and pathogens—in order to strengthen the global fight against the spread of contagious animal diseases.   * “Experimental facilities for animal diseases and infectious diseases (including zoonoses).”** French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES).  

The VetBioNet Network

> European academic partners: INRA, ANSES (France); Central Veterinary Institute, Erasmus Medical Center (Netherlands); Friedrich-Loeffler Institute (Germany); The Pirbright Institute, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Moredun Research Institute, The Roslin Institute–University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham, Marine Scotland (United Kingdom); Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaria (Spain); Aarhus University (Denmark); Państwowy Instytut Weterynaryjny (Poland); University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin (Ireland); Instituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (Italy). > Organizations from associated third countries: Eidgenössisches Volkswirtschaftsdepartement (Switzerland), International Livestock Research Institute (Kenya), Plum Island Animal Disease Center (United States), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (Canada), Australian Animal Health Laboratory (Australia). > European industrial partners: InSCREENeX, Leica, Noldus Information Technology, EpiBioSafe, Vertebrate Antibodies Ltd, Ingenasa.