Veterinary Public Health Institute

Completed Projects

Vaccination strategies

Vaccination concepts for the control of highly contagious animal diseases as part of the Swiss animal health strategy

Contact person: Elena Di Labio
Duration: Jan. 2008 - Dez. 2010

With recent outbreaks of highly contagious animal diseases, targeted use of vaccines in disease control has been increasingly stipulated by several countries in Europe. Current knowledge on epidemiological, economical and socio-ethical aspects of the control of the respective animal disease is needed in order to make a comprehensive decision about the use of vaccines in the control of highly contagious animal diseases. However, in many cases, such knowledge has been missing in Switzerland and Europe so far.
The aim of the project is to provide a basis for decision-making for the control of the highly contagious animal diseases FMD, CSF, HPAI, NCD and BT by elaborating scientific syntheses on the epidemiological, economical and socio-ethical aspects of disease control. Particularly, it is shown for which animal diseases and under which circumstances the use of vaccination can be indicated in Switzerland. The project is divided into 6 work packages: overview of existing international knowledge, epidemiology of animal disease outbreaks with/without vaccination, vaccines, socio-ethical analyses, economical analyses and logistics of a vaccination campaign. Each aspect will be processed - partly in parallel projects - in collaboration with external partners (Vetsuisse Faculty University of Bern, ETH Zurich and the Royal Veterinary College, UK).
The knowledge gained in this project provides the basis for the choice of the control strategy for the selected animal diseases and, therefore, serves to optimize animal disease control in Switzerland.