OUR MISSION

Identify potentially zoonotic pathogens in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s high biodiversity and close human-wildlife interactions create a potential hotspot for the emergence of zoonotic diseases. To proactively investigate this risk, the IDEA project was launched in 2017 as a scientific collaboration between the University of Colombo, the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, and the Robert Koch Institute of Germany. The project is funded by the Global Health Protection Programme (GHPP) of the German Federal Ministry of Health.

The project was initiated in response to growing environmental pressures. As development and agriculture fragment natural habitats, wildlife populations become stressed, significantly elevating the risk of pathogen spillover events from animals to humans.

Recognizing the urgent need to strengthen national disease surveillance, this partnership leverages a One Health approach. The IDEA project focuses on building advanced laboratory and field capacities within Sri Lanka for the reliable identification and characterization of potentially zoonotic infectious agents, thereby directly enhancing the country’s public health security and outbreak preparedness.