The UP CVZ has a vision to be a research Centre of excellence in viral zoonotic diseases of public health concern in Africa but also globally. UP CVZ will achieve this by investigating endemic and emerging zoonotic viral diseases of public health significance in humans, animals and the environment and encourage collaborative research that will involve partners from multiple disciplines within the University of Pretoria but also including regional, national and international collaborators. UP CVZ will join forces of established research groups in arbovirology, bat and other small mammal viral zoonotic diseases, rabies and rabies related lyssaviruses, viral pathology, medical entomology and ecology. UP CVZ will strive to generate new knowledge through surveillance, building diagnostic capacity through innovation, epidemiology, pathology, pathogenesis and ecology of zoonotic pathogens in humans and animals and identify intervention strategies for effective disease control.