Illustration by Olaf Hajek, in The New York Times Sunday Review: ‘The Ecology of disease’, 14 Jul 2012. Jim Robbins in The New York Times Sunday Review today writes about the ways breakdowns in the world’s ecosystems can ‘come back to haunt us in ways we know little about. . . . Multimedia Graphic Hot … Continue reading »
On 21 May, the Ohio State University- Eastern Africa Track II Certification training in collaboration with ILRI will commence in Addis Ababa, with courses also offered in other locations. The training will run through July 27, 2012. Read more Continue reading »
Malawi crop-and-livestock farmer (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). One of the drivers of disease in Africa, a continent with a particularly heavy disease burden, are environmental changes that help to spread infectious pathogens between animals (both wild and domestic) and people. That is why the start of a new research program, in which the International Livestock … Continue reading »
The Fifth Plague: Livestock Disease, woodcut by Gustave Doré, 1866 (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). Anthrax, bird flu , Ebola, HIV-AIDS, H1N1, H5N1, influenza, Rift Valley fever, SARS: What are the disease links between people, animals and environments? And what are we doing to protect ourselves against the next outbreak of a deadly infectious disease? … Continue reading »
The march of the West Nile virus (illustration on Flickr by A J Cann: Present and future arboviral threats. Antiviral Res. 2010 85[2]: 328–345). Laurie Garnett, a scientific consultant on Steven Soderbergh’s new film ‘Contagion’, wrote the popular science book The Coming Plague in the 1990s. In a piece on CNN last week, she warns that … Continue reading »
In this month’s Veterinary Record, Edinburgh University’s Sue Welburn assesses recent progress in developing the One Health concept, and where the challenges remain. She argues that “One Health offers a paradigm shift in our approach towards zoonotic diseases, and is essential to meet 21st century challenges arising from globalisation, climate change and population growth. It … Continue reading »
From The Lancet: “In the past two decades there has been a growing realisation that the livestock sector was in a process of change, resulting from an expansion of intensive animal production systems and trade to meet a globalised world’s increasing demand for livestock products. One unintended consequence has been the emergence and spread of … Continue reading »
Given the frequent outbreaks of animal diseases such as bird flu, avian influenza, anthrax, and other viral and bacterial infections, animal healthcare has gained tremendous significance across the globe. The global veterinary vaccines market waned in 2008 and 2009, as a result of the global meltdown. The market, nevertheless, recovered in 2010 and is expected … Continue reading »
The next global pandemic is likely to arise in South-East Asia where factors ranging from weak surveillance to the increasing proximity of humans and animals continue to make it vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases, according to experts. The region’s population has soared in the last decade and, together with an increase in livestock production, particularly … Continue reading »
An American billionaire who built his fortune as co-founder of software giant Microsoft has given a university $26 million to find ways of improving Africa’s ability to respond to animal-borne diseases. Paul G. Allen, an investor and philanthropist, has made the largest gift to Washington State University in the school’s history — $26 million to … Continue reading »
