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VOICE-OVER: A man is sweeping out his shed.
A harmless routine activity, or is it?
This is an example related to the everyday work of RIVM.
If the shed is infested with a rodent species known as the bank vole,
the man could contract hantavirus and become ill.
A disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans is called a zoonosis.
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VOICE-OVER: Infections with hantavirus are transmitted by an indirect route.
Some other zoonoses are more familiar.
Bird flu, for example, which was spread from birds to humans at poultry markets in Asia.
Or Q fever, which recently caused a large outbreak in the Netherlands,
transmitted by goats and sheep.
MRSA, which is found in a large proportion of pigs and cattle.
The ESBL-producing bacteria can be found in chicken and poultry meat.
There are several ways in which humans can contract
infectious diseases from animals.
YVONNE VAN DUYNHOVEN: Zoonoses are infectious diseases
that are transmitted from animals to humans
and you can get a zoonosis by having contact with infected animals
or faeces or urine from these animals
or you can get it by consuming contaminated meat,
and if it is not well cooked when you eat it, you can get infected.
Or you can get the infection through contact with the environment.
For instance, by swimming in recreational lakes contaminated by the pathogens.
VOICE-OVER: RIVM conducts many research projects.
One study focuses on echinococcal disease,
caused by a parasite carried by foxes.
The eggs of the parasitic tapeworm echinococcosis multilocularis
are present in the animal's faeces.
They're a potential source of human infection.
A problem which is most common in the South Limburg region.
Recent years have seen much attention paid to Lyme disease,
which is transmitted by ticks.
Lyme disease is on the rise in the Netherlands.
It has major social impact because anyone can be bitten by a tick.
RIVM and the Ministry of Health
have launched an awareness and information campaign about Lyme disease.
It includes a website and printed materials distributed by GPs, General Practitioners
and municipal health services.
Ticks can be found throughout the world.
Zoonoses do not respect borders, so we have to collaborate a lot
and for us our European partners are the most important ones,
and these are the sister institutes of the RIVM.
In Europe we also have a co-ordinating centre, which is the ECDC,
the European Centre for Disease Control in Stockholm,
and we also have the World Health Organization.
VOICE-OVER: RIVM researches the risk of zoonoses
among people who work with animals, such as poultry and pig farmers,
and for communities close to livestock farms.
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VOICE-OVER: RIVM's research into ESBLs
is commissioned by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.
The study focuses on both the animal and the farmer.
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JOKE VAN DER GIESSEN: For the adequate signalling and control of zoonoses,
collaboration between the human and the animal field is very important
and we work closely together.
And it has become more important
since outbreaks occurred in the Netherlands some years ago.
In the veterinary field the control of zoonoses is organised very differently
from in the human field, so it was not so obvious to work together,
but we are learning and we are doing better and better.
VOICE-OVER: Pig manure is sent
to the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority for analysis.
The farmer's faeces is analysed at the RIVM laboratory.
VOICE-OVER: To provide an effective response to zoonoses
RIVM takes a fully integrated approach
in which attention is paid to people, animals and the environment.
This is crucial as human health is dependent on that of animals.
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