The partnership will aim to determine which agroecological landscapes represent the greatest risk for disease transmission, and to strengthen national capacity to balance biodiversity preservation with agricultural intensification.
30 May 2011: The Food and Agriculture of the UN (FAO) and Max Planck Institute have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaborating on studies of species-swapping diseases that move between wild and domestic animals and in some cases to humans, such as the A/H1N1 swine flu and the H5N1 avian flu.
The partnership aims to determine which agroecological landscapes represent the greatest risk for disease transmission. It also will involve collaboration to help countries strengthen national capacity to balance preservation of biodiversity with expansion and and intensification of agricultural production. [FAO Press Release]