In the last fifteen years the world witnessed the emergence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease in the United Kingdom, Hendra virus in Australia, Nipah virus in Malaysia, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or Bird Flu in Southeast Asia, and most recently Pandemic H1N1 Influenza, … Continue reading
Author Archives: Peter Ballantyne (ILRI)
PNG tribal life holds key to animal disease research
In the Papua New Guinea Highlands, people live in much the same way as they have for centuries. But even in these far reaches, technology is making its first tentative steps into this subsistence way of life. Villagers have been wooed by the lure of mobile telephones, provided to them by companies which are using … Continue reading
“Livestock and Climate Change” and soil organisms
Eventually, if livestock agriculture gets totally out of hand, the soil will be depleted of carbon and the plants, livestock and humans will all die; but because there’s so much carbon in the soil, we’ll have runaway global warming long before that happens. Thus, livestock are critical to the climate change issue. Read more … … Continue reading
Infectious disease movement in a borderless world
Modern transportation allows people, animals, and plants–and the pathogens they carry–to travel more easily than ever before. The ease and speed of travel, tourism, and international trade connect once-remote areas with one another, eliminating many of the geographic and cultural barriers that once limited the spread of disease. Because of our global interconnectedness through transportation, … Continue reading
Africa gets places at World food safety table
Africa is getting chairs at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) table where food safety and animal and plant health issues are decided. africa-apple-featured.jpgWTO is giving observer status to three regional organizations of African counties on its Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee. WTO’s new observers are the Economic Committee for West African States (ECOWAS), the Committee … Continue reading
Livestock: A smart solution for food and farming
The March 2010 issue of ILEIA’s ‘Farming Matters’ magazine is subtitled ‘Going for more animals.’ The issue “focuses on how small-scale farmers manage their animals, how they link animal husbandry with other activities, and what their livestock means to them. An integrated perspective on the role of farm animals is crucial in overcoming simplistic assumptions … Continue reading
Globalization and one health: A gateway to the future?
On Tuesday March 17, at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo., more than 250 livestock industry professionals gathered for NIAA’s theme of “One Health: Implications for Animal Agriculture.” One Health is a collaborative effort of multiple disciplines to obtain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. The … Continue reading
GPS tracking set to revolutionise livestock management
A recent trial of global positioning system (GPS) tracking technology on Twynam Agriculture’s “Buttabone” property in Western NSW has shown that steers graze only a fraction of the paddock available to them. “Most graziers realise that their cattle don’t use the paddocks evenly,” said Dr Mark Trotter from the University of New England’s Precision Agriculture … Continue reading
Animal Diseases / Asia / Bangladesh / India / South Asia / Wildlife
Wildlife Trust launches One Health Alliance of South Asia
Wildlife Trust, the global conservation health organization, announced the formation of the One Health Alliance of South Asia (OHASA) – a collaborative group of scientists and government agencies focused on preventing the spread of emerging diseases among wildlife and human populations. Read more … (Wildlife Trust) Continue reading
Optimal long-term stocking rates for livestock grazing in a Sahelian rangeland
A recent paper in the African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics presents a model for calculating the optimal livestock stocking rate in a semi-arid rangeland that accounts for stochastic rainfall, the ecological feedback effect and variable prices. The model is developed for rangelands dominated by annual rather than perennial grasses, such as the African … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 