Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut – Federal Research Institute for Animal Health

As an independent higher federal authority and research institute in the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) is active in many fields. This includes health, nutrition, animal welfare, the husbandry of farm animals, the conservation of animal genetic resources and protection against infectious diseases that affect animals or are transmitted by them to humans.

Both Jena institutes with their approximately 150 employees represent the FLI’s competence in the research of bacterial infectious agents. The Institute for Bacterial Infections and Zoonoses is doing research primarily on the causes of diseases and their triggering factors, as well as on combating bacterial infectious diseases. Not only the classical farm animals and their diseases are in our focus of interest but also companion animals, animals kept in zoos and wildlife.

The outcomes are used to develop new and to optimize current diagnostic procedures and vaccines as well as for the development of control strategies. Research on drug resistance is increasingly taking centre stage.

At the Institute of Molecular Pathogenesis immunological, pathological, cell biological and molecular biological groups with extensive expertise in the application of infection models in farm animals are working here. At the focus of our work is to characterize the interactions between bacterial agents causing animal diseases and zoonoses and their hosts on the molecular level. We evaluate the relevance of these findings for prophylaxis and infection control in the organism as a whole.

As a sovereign task, we house 18 national reference laboratories for animal diseases in Jena, where the latest knowledge and methods are available. As Collaborating Centre of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) for zoonoses in Europe, we host three international reference laboratories in Jena and perform important work in the global coordination of animal disease diagnostics.