More than 50 medical and veterinary scientists from 16 European organizations met in London last week (September 8-10) to plan for a new "virtual institute" that will focus on the prevention and control of diseases transmitted from animals to humans, including foodborne diseases.

The Network for Prevention and Control of Zoonoses, or MED-VET-NET for short, is being funded by a EU grant of 14.4 million euros over the next 5 years. Diane Newell, scientific coordinator of the project, told The Scientist from the sidelines of the meeting: "The foundation is now being laid."

The next step in the creation of the network will come on September 21 and 22 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, when directors from each of the 16 institutes and organizations meet as MED-VET-NET's governing board to discuss management issues.

Fabio Fabbi, spokesman for EU research and development commissioner Philippe Busquin, told The Scientist that the MED-VET-NET was part of a 192-million euro grant for food quality and safety research, under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research.

Newell said the seed for MED-VET-NET was planted 5 years ago, when the main veterinary institutes of the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden agreed to hold annual meetings to discuss important issues. Two years ago they submitted a proposal to the European Union to set up a research network into animal health issues. The European Union was interested, but only if the network also dealt with public health issues and included food safety participation, she said.

"So we adapted, had to modify our original concept," Newell said. "But this was a beneficial direction to go."

Stefan H.E. Kaufmann, director of the department of immunology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, told The Scientist that cases of zoonotic diseases are increasing worldwide, especially in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. The World Organization for Animal Health recently said it would update its early warning system for animal diseases.

Although Europe is generally not considered to be a breeding ground for zoonoses, it nonetheless will increasingly become a target of diseases that originated elsewhere, Kaufmann said. "We live in a global, mobile world," he said. "Pathogens do not care about passport control, so this is an important issue for Europe."

At some point in the future, Kaufman believes Europe will probably have to deal with diseases like bird flu, SARS, and West Nile Virus on a large scale. "It will happen in the next couple of years," he said. "We have to be prepared for it."

Full membership to MED-VET-NET is closed under the current 5-year EU funding, Newell said. But the network is exploring possibilities to admit "association members" and to collaborate with partners outside the European Union.