Invention of more effective antibiotics and vaccines, and dramatic improvements in sanitation and public health have accelerated the downward trends of many infectious diseases, such as dysentery and cholera, promising that infectious agents can be totally eradicated from the earth. However, many infectious diseases remain among the greatest health problems in the world as microorganisms have developed several strategies to escape host immune forces and to strike back (i.e. acquired resistance to antibiotics, new virulent factors, and active antigenic shift or mutation). In the veterinary field, although major bacteria and virus infection have been brought under control by effective vaccines and antibiotics, many infectious diseases which are not successfully controlled are still present. Since enormous economic losses of livestock are caused by those infections on a global scale, establishment of effective preventive measures to control these infections is the most important subject to maintain maximum food production in the restricted spaces we have on the earth.

   For these reasons, research activities of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases are concentrated on systematic analysis of the pathogenesis of viral and bacterial infections of domestic animals.