German National Reference Laboratory for Rabies - FLI

♦ 01 October 2015 ♦

 

German National Reference Laboratory for Rabies

Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut - FLI


German National Reference Laboratory

The National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for Rabies is one of the 70 German NRLs for notifiable and reportable animal diseases at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health. Three years ago our laboratory moved from the old location in Wusterhausen to the headquarters at the Isle of Riems, which is situated in the Baltic Sea half way between the cities of Stalsund and Greifswald.



Aerial photograph of the headquarters of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut as of July 2015

 

Accreditation and tasks

Our reference laboratory has been accredited by the Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS) according to ISO/IEC 17025. A broad range of standard rabies diagnostic tests including FAT, RTCIT, DRIT, RFFIT, FAVN, conventional and realtime PCRs as well as scientific methodologies are established. According to our terms of reference we clarify suspected cases, provide advice to the veterinary authorities and conduct ring trials or carry out similar quality assurance measures for rabies diagnostics for the more than 25 regional veterinary laboratories in Germany.  

 

WHO and OIE mandates

Since 1977 the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the FLI as Collaborating Centre for Rabies Surveillance and Research.  The development and management of the European Rabies Surveillance Database (www.who-rabies-bulletin.org) as well as the publication of the WHO Rabies Bulletin is a core area of our work here. In 1992 we were also appointed a reference laboratory for the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

 

Staff

Staff present on 14th July 2015 - From left to right: Tobias Nolden (postdoc), Thomas Müller, Angela Hillner, Conrad Freuling, Sabine Nehmitz (PhD Student), Jeannette Kliemt, Elisa Eggerbauer (PhD student), Dietlind Kretzschmar, Maria Günther (master student), Stefan Finke.

   The permanent staff of the German NRL for Rabies comprises two scientists and one laboratory technician. However, we have access to other resources at FLI such as the next generation sequencing (NGS), immunological, molecular and epidemiological research units. We also employ PhD students in the frame of research projects. Head of laboratory and the WHO CC is Thomas Müller, while Conrad Freuling is editor-in-chief of the WHO Rabies Bulletin Europe and responsible for the European Rabies Database.

 

Facilities and research fields

The BSL-3 diagnostic and experimental facilities are shared with the research group of Stefan Finke, which is mainly conducting basic research on lyssaviruses using sophisticated molecular techniques. There is strong inter-laboratory collaboration between our two groups.    
We are currently coordinating an intramural FLI lyssavirus research network comprising seven individual research projects to be conducted in the next three years. Areas of research range from molecular basics of pathogenicity and virus host-adaptation, adaptive and innate immunity, molecular epidemiology and phylogeny to the development of molecular and pen-side methods. Additionally, we are involved in developing and testing novel approaches for oral immunization of wildlife against rabies.

 

Contact

Dr Thomas Müller (Thomas.Mueller@fli.bund.de)
Dr Conrad Freuling (Conrad.Freuling@fli.bund.de)