The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recently designated the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) as a reference centre for rabies. As a new FAO reference centre, the FLI will focus its efforts on improving diagnostic methods and vaccination strategies, such as the oral vaccination of dogs against rabies. In the past, the FLI has successfully supported field trials of oral rabies vaccination in dogs in Namibia, India and Turkey, where high acceptance of vaccination baits was observed.
With its appointment as an FAO Reference Centre, the FLI is the only research institute in the world to provide rabies expertise to all three international organisations. The FLI is already a World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reference laboratory and has recently been re-designated as a WHO collaborating centre for rabies surveillance and research.
Both designations underline the FLI's long-standing excellence in translational rabies research, surveillance and control. The FLI is making a major contribution to global health through the One Health approach and is strengthening its collaboration with international partners to achieve the 'Zero by 30' target in the fight against this still deadly disease.
