Researchers from the University of Glasgow have won three grants worth £4.5m to study diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans.

The University is proud to have 3 out of 11 funded researchers in the BBSRC’s Zoonoses and Emerging Livestock Systems (ZELS) programme. The programme will aim to combat worldwide animal diseases that could spread to humans.

Monday 10^th November saw the launch of the ZELS programme at Central Hall Westminster. Professor Daniel Haydon, Professor Ruth Zadoks, Professor Sarah Cleaveland, and Professor Jo Sharp from the University of Glasgow shall receive funding for their respective projects.

The researchers are working in northern Tanzania to help improve the health of poor farmers and their livestock through an integrated approach to human, animal and environmental health research called ‘One Health’.

Each of the grants is led by staff from the award-winning Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, and involves collaborations with academic colleagues in Africa, the UK, US and New Zealand as well as government bodies in the UK and Tanzania.

A £20.5M programme of research and training to tackle important animal diseases that can pass to humans has been funded by a partnership of six UK agencies.

The funded ZELS projects are:

• Food safety hazards in emerging livestock meat pathways (HAZEL). Professor Ruth Zadoks, University of Glasgow.
  The aim of this project is to develop a robust understanding of how zoonotic enteric pathogens flow through the meat chain in Tanzania and to use this information to develop policies to improve food safety. 
• Developing the evidence base to control brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Daniel Haydon and Dr Jo Halliday, University of Glasgow.
  This project will develop the evidence-base to inform the use of Brucella vaccines in sub-Saharan Africa and build capacity in Tanzanian laboratories to generate critical Brucella typing data. 
• Looking at factors affecting transmission of zoonotic pathogens from livestock to people. Professor’s Sarah Cleaveland and Jo Sharp, University of Glasgow.
  This project aims to understand the ways in which changes in market dynamics, land-use and agricultural policy, environmental factors, cultural practices and technology are all impacting upon the way people keep and manage livestock, and the consequences of these changes on diseases that affect both animals and people

Find out more: 

• HAZEL
  
• SEEDZ
• Brucellosis

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Media Enquiries: leila.khoshoie@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 3683

First published: 11 November 2014