Keeping camels, and their keepers, free of disease in Kenya, where ‘raw’ camel milk is becoming popular

Posted on 11 May 2013 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Camels cover dozens of kilometres in search of water; average distances to watering points in the outskirts of Marsabit and Moyale, in the upper east corner of Kenya, run into dozens of kilometres (photo by Ann Weru/IRIN www.irinnews.org). ‘Camels are known for their ability to travel long distances across the desert without water. ‘But they’re also … Continue reading »

Agri-Health / CRP4 / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Health (human) / ILRI / Kenya / MarketOpps / PA / Zoonotic Diseases

As livestock farming intensifies in poor countries, so can livestock–and livestock-to-human–diseases

Posted on 6 May 2013 by Susan MacMillan • 3 Comments

The health of people and their farm animals in Kenya and other developing countries are closely linked (photo credit: ILRI/Charlie Pye-Smith). ‘While livestock contribute about 40 per cent of the value of agriculture and forms a crucial part of household wealth [in Kenya and many other developing countries], experts now say keeping animals is spreading … Continue reading »

Agri-Health / Article / CRP4 / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / Health (human) / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / MarketOpps / Nutrition (human) / PA / Policy / Report / Zoonotic Diseases

Keeping cows in the city, chickens under the bed: ‘The Atlantic’ magazine explores Africa’s urbanization

Posted on 8 Apr 2013 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Butcher shop in a slum in Kawangare, Nairobi, Kenya (picture on Flickr by Brad Ruggles). It’s not only people who are rapidly urbanizing in Africa: people migrating from rural areas are bringing their livelihoods with them, which in Africa largely means their cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and pigs. A scientific report from researchers based in … Continue reading »

Agri-Health / Animal Production / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / Health (human) / ILRI / Intensification / Livestock Systems / MarketOpps / PA / Pigs / Poultry

Misuse of antibiotics and ‘factory farming’ of animals: Alarm bells sound

Posted on 18 Mar 2013 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

‘The Spoonful of Milk’ by Marc Chagall, 1912 (via WikiPaintings). ‘. . . It is estimated that about 70% of the world’s antibiotics are fed to farm animals: the precise amount used in agriculture is poorly recorded. But what seems sure — as the number of intensively farmed animals grows — is that their use increases too, … Continue reading »

Article / Event / Film and video / Food security / Ghana / Health (human) / Nutrition (human) / PA / USA / West Africa / Women

Got milk? (or meat or eggs)? The missing ingredients in global nutritional security

Posted on 9 Mar 2013 by Susan MacMillan • 2 Comments

Hidden Hunger from Bob Caputo on Vimeo. Watch this handsomely made film (with superb writing as well as videography), produced in 2010 by National Geographic‘s Bob Caputo (run-time: 26 minutes). ‘Malnutrition does not make headlines the way famine does. But it is far more widespread and deadly. Globally, it affects more than a billion people. It is … Continue reading »

Agri-Health / Article / Disease Control / East Africa / Epidemiology / Ethiopia / Health (human) / ILRI / MarketOpps / PA / Zoonotic Diseases

An old-fashioned disease threatens ancient culture / emerging economy: TB in Ethiopia

Posted on 6 Feb 2013 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

ILRI’s ‘A disease called poverty’ poster: An old-fashioned deadly disease is emerging from an ancient culture and an emerging economy (poster credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). ‘Ethiopia has the largest cattle population in Africa. The vast majority of the national herd is of indigenous zebu cattle maintained in rural areas under extensive husbandry systems. However, in response … Continue reading »

Wildlife / ILRI / PA / MarketOpps / Animal Health / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Geodata / Epidemiology / Zoonotic Diseases / Health (human) / Agri-Health / Article / CRP4

Pathogen ecologies and human interventions: The natural and unnatural histories of zoonotic diseases

Posted on 2 Dec 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Three diapered goats in the boot of a car in Bamako, Mali (photo on Flickr by Romel Jacinto/37 °C). This week, the Lancet publishes a series of three papers on diseases that are ‘zoonotic’, that is, infections shared by people and other animals. As William Keresh of EcoHealth Alliance (New York) and his colleagues explain in … Continue reading »

Animal Health / Cattle / CRP4 / Dairying / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Health (human) / HIV-AIDS / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / MarketOpps / PA / Zoonotic Diseases

‘Crypto’ and other diseases we get from animals are on the rise in poor countries

Posted on 11 Nov 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Leonard Gitau, a small-scale livestock farmer in Dagoretti, Nairobi, speaks to journalists during a media tour of urban farmers in Nairobi on 21 Sep 2012 (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). Sarah Ooko, special correspondent for the East African, reports that ‘animal to human diseases are on the rise’ in this region. ‘Zoonoses’ is the term used … Continue reading »

Agri-Health / CRP4 / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Film and video / Food Safety / Health (human) / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / MarketOpps / PA / Report / Zoonotic Diseases

Slum livestock = Food? Income? Disease? All three?–Al Jazeera reports on ILRI research

Posted on 7 Nov 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Peter Greste, a journalist with Al Jazeera, recently accompanied veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace to the slums of Nairobi, to take a first-hand look at ‘urban farming’, livestock farming in particular. Grace works for the International Livestock Research Institute and leads a health component of a new multi-institutional CGIAR Research Program on … Continue reading »

Agri-Health / Article / Cattle / CRP4 / Dairying / East Africa / Food Safety / Health (human) / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / MarketOpps / PA / Zoonotic Diseases

Cattle in the capital, managed well, can improve nutrition and health in Kenya’s slums

Posted on 4 Nov 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Leornard Gitau, a small-scale livestock farmer in Dagoretti, Nairobi speaks to journalists during a media tour of urban farmers in Nairobi on 21 Sep 2012 (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). In the Nairobi suburb of Dagoretti, ‘Leonard Gichuru Gitau is a city dweller, but it doesn’t take a detective to see that he is also a … Continue reading »

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