A vet visits Klaus Hoffmann’s chicken coop with an assistant and a portable laboratory. The goal of the project is to detect ‘zoonoses’, infections that pass from animals to humans, at an early stage. These 40 chickens are Hoffmann’s great hobby. Today, they are being thoroughly checked for age, size, weight and viral load. The results of the chicken examination are later compared with health data from Hoffmann himself — and compared to data from Hoffmann’s dog, as well. The aim is to detect viruses, bacteria or parasites that could migrate from animal to human.

The coronavirus pandemic is highly likely to have been caused by such a zoonosis. Fabian Leendertz is researching this theory at the University of Greifswald. He specializes in a new field of research called “One Health”. This research field looks at how humans, animals and the environment interact in the spread of new viruses. Leendertz, who has worked on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) to trace the origin of the coronavirus, wants to stay two steps ahead of the next wave of infection. That means identifying viruses before they can become dangerous for us.

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The Friedrich Loeffler Institute on the island of Riems can only be reached via a single bridge. The island lies in the Baltic Sea, and its isolated location is vital: Dangerous viruses are stored here, including Ebola, Rabies, Swine Fever, Crimean-Congo Fever and Sars-CoV-2.

The facility is one of only three such laboratories in the world – and the only one in Europe – where dangerous diseases can be researched using live animals such as cattle and pigs under high-security conditions. Researchers are working to understand how new pathogens spread, and to develop vaccines. It’s a race against time, as viruses have long since come to have enormous global consequences.

African Swine Fever is on the rise in Eastern Europe. In Germany, wild boars were found dead of ASF for the first time in the fall of 2020. It’s vital to stop the further spread of the disease. So far in Germany, its rampant spread has been limited to wild pigs, but there is a high risk that the virus will begin to affect pig farms.

An outbreak in Germany, the world’s third-largest pork producer, would be an economic disaster. Now, a promising potential vaccine is being tested in Riems. It could prove to be a life-saving solution.

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