Liverpool University is to establish the world's first centre dedicated to the study of diseases such as avian flu, BSE and Sars.
The National Centre for Zoonosis Research, based at the university, will study diseases that originate in animals but can jump species and infect humans.
About 75 per cent of new human infectious diseases are zoonoses, those transmissible between animals and man. The centre will bring together medical and veterinary specialists.