History:

The Department was established under the name „Research Group for Natural Focality of Infections” by splitting from the former Parasitology Research Group probably in 1986. The present Department also includes the previously dissolved Parasitology Research Group.


Head: Petr Kodym, M.A., Ph.D.
Deputy Head: Zuzana Kurzová, M.A.

As follows from the name of the department, the main focus is on zoonoses – infections that can be transmitted from animals to humans.

The Department has four national reference laboratories (NRLs):

• NRL for Lyme Borreliosis. This tick-borne disease is one of vector-borne bacterial zoonoses with natural focality whose causative agents are maintained in reservoir hosts such as wild birds and mammals in natural foci and are transmitted by blood-sucking arthropods. The vector of Lyme borreliosis is the tick that may transmit the causative bacterium to humans while biting to take blood.
• NRL for Toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasitic protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii. Cats are the definitive host for Toxoplasma. Humans may become infected with Toxoplasma by ingestion of cat-excreted oocysts from the environment or through eating undercooked food with Toxoplasma bradyzoites. Toxoplasma infection can also be transmitted from mother to child (congenital infection) and from organ donor to transplant recipient.
• NRL for Leptospira. Leptospirosis is a zoonosis caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira. The reservoir hosts are wild, synanthropic, or domestic mammals such as rodents, wildcats, etc. The infection can be transmitted to humans e.g. through urine of infected animals.
• NRL for electron microscopy virus detection. This NRL uses trasmission electron microscopy (TEM) to detect infectious agents, in particular viruses, in various clinical specimens.

The laboratories of the Department of Zoonoses with Natural Focality focus primarily on diagnosis quality improvement, selection and implementation of novel diagnostic methods and more accurate interpretation of laboratory test results to make it as predictive as possible to meet the diagnostic needs of every clinician. By providing consultations, training, and lectures, by publishing papers, manuals and guidelines, and by participating in the EQAS interlaboratory comparison, the NRLs help other diagnostic laboratories in the Czech Republic to improve their performance and competitiveness.

Other tasks are the epidemiological surveillance of the respective diseases in the Czech Republic including the surveillance of the prevalence of the causative agents in reservoir hosts and vectors.

Research is an important part of the activities – it includes routine data collection, processing, analysis and publication and participation in grant projects.

We will be happy to engage in cooperation with other research, clinical, and diagnostic teams involved in the study of the infections that are the subject of our interest.