Affiliated Partner Institutes
Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene
Food Safety is an essential veterinary public health issue. The potential threat to public health from foodborne disease continues to increase.
The Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene (ILS) is part of the Vetsuisse Faculty University of Zurich and covers the field of veterinary food safety and hygiene in research, teaching, and services.
Research and teaching activities are focusing on the food chain (preharvest, harvest and postharvest level).
The ILS is the national reference laboratory for enteropathogenic bacteria and Listeria monocytogenes (human, food strains) as well as the national reference lab (NRL) for Shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) (animal strains).
Institute of Parasitology
The Institute of Parasitology at the University of Zurich (IPZ) was founded in 1968 as a dual institute of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Vetsuisse Faculty) and the Faculty of Medicine. The IPZ is a reference center for disease-associated vectors, a designation given by the Federal Veterinary Office. The National Centre for Vector Entomology at IPZ acts as the leading competence center and reference laboratory for arthropod vectors of animal pathogens. Furthermore, the institute is now affiliated with the One Health Institute.
The IPZ is a reference centre for echinococcosis, cryptosporidiosis, hypodermosis and animal disease-associated vectors appointed by the Federal Veterinary Office.
Institute for Medical Microbiology
The Institute of Medical Microbiology (IMM) at the University of Zurich is dedicated to excellence in teaching, cutting-edge research, and advanced laboratory diagnostics of infections and for public health. The institute specializes in diagnostic microbiology, investigating antibiotic resistance mechanisms, and unraveling fundamental aspects of host-pathogen interactions. Its interdisciplinary research approach encompasses cellular and molecular microbiology, microbial evolution, and bacterial functionality.
IMM offers comprehensive educational programs tailored for students in medicine, dentistry, and biology at the University of Zurich, as well as for students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). IMM's curriculum provides students with both theoretical knowledge and practical insights into current microbiological challenges and innovations.
Their state-of-the-art diagnostics laboratory, accredited by the Swiss Accreditation Service SAS (accreditation number 266, ISO 17025), provides services in bacteriology, mycobacteriology, mycology, and serology. IMM is recognized for its leadership in sequencing technologies and serves as the sequencing reference laboratory for the Swiss National Reference Center for Legionella and many other institutions.
Additionally, IMM is responsible for coordinating external quality control programs for medical microbiology laboratories across Switzerland and neighboring countries, ensuring excellence and standardization in diagnostic microbiology.
IMM actively collaborates within national networks as one of the core centers of the National Center for Mycobacteriology (NZM) and as an integral part of the Swiss National Reference Center for Emerging Antibiotic Resistance (NARA), reinforcing their commitment to public health and infectious disease surveillance».