Official opening ceremony for NCZR

The National Centre for Zoonosis Research was officially opened on 12 December, 2007,  by Lord David Owen and Lord Lawson Soulsby. 

The core of the Centre is physically hosted by the University of Liverpool in a refurbished building at Leahurst, linked to the University's Veterinary School, but is 'owned' by a Board consisting of representatives of the various stakeholders (the Universities of Liverpool and Lancaster, the Health Protection Agency and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency other major funders and independent members) and will have staff based at various institutions.

In introducing the Centre, the Co-Directors, Dr Chris Parry and Professor Malcolm Bennett said:

'Probably the simplest definition of Zoonoses is that of diseases that human animals acquire from non-human animals.  Of course many zoonoses are extremely rare, but some are surprisingly common: rabies still kills over 50,000 people every year, mainly in Africa and Asia, while Campylobacter bacteria, are the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK and much of the so-called developed world. Zoonoses can also hit the headlines - salmonella in eggs, BSE/CJD, SARS and avian influenza are all zoonoses that have the potential to affect not only human health, but also elections.

The idea of this Centre evolved over more than decade, from a series of collaborative projects that brought together medical and veterinary scientists, with microbiologists, ecologists, epidemiologists, statisticians, mathematicians, economists and social scientists.  Out of these discussions, involving scientists from many institutions, but particularly Liverpool and Lancaster Universities, the Health Protection Agency and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, came the idea of a national network of people interested in zoonosis research.  And along with that, the notion of some sort of core or centre that might help hold that network of collaboration together.

The  North West Regional Development Agency funded the establishment of the NCZR through a grant of £1.68M -  and we are obviously very grateful to the NWDA for their support -  and extra staff have resulted from the investments of the Universities of Liverpool and Lancaster, the VLA and the HPA. The Centre has already won a further £3M in external research funding, with around the same amount currently applied for, and taken on management of the a £4.2M VTRI programme.
We think that an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional approach to zoonosis research is essential - while they are all diseases of human animals , zoonoses originate in other, non-human animals, and so it is not enough merely to understand their epidemiology in people.  That human beings are animals and share the world with other animals, makes zoonoses inevitable. Infectious agents are part of our environment and the global ecosystem that maintains that environment. And this means shifting the way we think about disease and disease burden. It means recognising that trade-offs, in terms of what we want from our environment, are inevitable. It therefore also means that smarter control methods need to be developed, based on an understanding of ecology, evolution... and an overview of human wellbeing not just health.

The Centre has developed from the efforts of a multitude of people from many backgrounds and institutions, and we'd like to thank all of them - to mention any individual would mean having to mention everyone, and that would take an awful long time. 

That said, there is one person we'd like to mention who isn't here today: Tony Hart.  Tony died suddenly only a couple of months ago, and was very much looking forward to today - he was a co-director of this Centre, helping to  the NWDA and other grant applications,  and ensuring that the Centre developed as it should.  More than that, he was a mentor, a collaborator, and, to many people here today, a great friend. So it's wonderful to have his wife Jenny, and daughters Rachel and Laura here today, to keep an eye on us on Tony's behalf.

Were he here today, Tony would have been delighted that you had travelled to join us and would have had a great time meeting, and teasing, old friends, making new ones, setting up new collaborative research projects, swapping stories (and samples), and looking forward to some beer and food afterwards. 

Thank you all for coming, and thank you for helping us all reach today.
Today is about celebrating collaborative research and sharing ideas, something Tony would certainly have been encouraging us all to do.  Let's go open the Centre and then get talking. '

More pictures