According to FAO, Governments could save billions of dollars by stepping up the prevention and control of high impact animal diseases, some of which pose a direct threat to human health. Many other animal diseases have a negative impact on people’s livelihoods. Pandemic influenza viruses H5N1 and H1N1, foot-and-mouth disease, Rift Valley fever, and rabies are … Continue reading
Category Archives: Animal Health
Using health ecology to manage emerging diseases in Zimbabwe
Since 2008, the Parsel project has been monitoring cattle and wild hoofed animal movements in the Zimbabwe National Park. The aim is to understand and limit the spread of certain diseases. The results obtained so far are so encouraging that the protocol has just been extended to South Africa and Mozambique. Read more … (CIRAD) Continue reading
Animal Health / Animal Production / Asia / China / Environment / Livestock
World Bank supports Henan Ecological Livestock Project in China
The objective of the Henan Ecological Livestock Project for China is to improve environmental health management practices on the targeted livestock farms in the Yellow River Belt in Henan province. There are three components to the project. The first component of the project is institutional strengthening, training and technical support. Improving the technical understanding and … Continue reading
Zambia formulates livestock development and animal health project
The proposed project will support the government in improving the productivity of key production systems, namely meat and milk from cattle and small ruminants, and poultry sector. It will specifically strengthen the veterinary services (public and private) to better control major animal diseases and improve food safety. It will also tackle other identified constraints by … Continue reading
Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Disease Control / ECF / ILRI / Livestock / Vaccines
Protecting cattle from East Coast fever
… Every year, over one million cattle in east and southern Africa die from East Coast fever – that’s about one cow every thirty seconds. The hardship caused by the disease to livestock keepers and their families is terrible, and financially, the loss to east Africa alone is around 190 million US dollars each year. … Continue reading
Zebra-scented cattle keep tsetse flies away
Zebra-scented cattle will be roaming East Africa in increasing numbers over the next three years thanks to a grant to perfect a technology that keeps tsetse flies away. Researchers have developed repellent collars containing the synthetic equivalents of the odours of animals that tsetse flies tend to avoid — such as zebra. “We decided to … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Health / Disease Control / East Africa / Kenya / Livestock / Vaccines
Kenyan vaccine developer eyes emerging livestock diseases
Kenya’s State-controlled livestock vaccine developer is preparing to tap into East Africa’s common market to shore up income as it targets emerging diseases. The Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Unit (Kevevapi), which was under Agriculture has now been transferred to the Livestock Development ministry. Read more … (Business Daily) Continue reading
Africa / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / East Africa / ECF / Livestock / Tanzania / Vaccines
Keeping the Maasai farmers alive when the pop stars have all gone
The Edinburgh-based charity GALVmed has brought hope to Maasai communities in Tanzania hit by East Coast fever, a livestock disease that kills 19 out of 20 calves It is a little after dawn in the Masai district of Engarenaibor in northwestern Tanzania. Amid a pre-historic landscape of rolling grassland and acacia trees, Paolo Lemorongo, a … Continue reading
Southern Africa academics visit London institute to create new ‘One-health’ courses
Academics from Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia visited course directors and researchers at two of LIDC’s member Colleges—the Royal Veterinary College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The discussions from their meetings during their two-week stay will influence the curricula for courses on analytical epidemiology, and molecular biology of infectious diseases, which will … Continue reading
Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Cattle / East Africa / ECF / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock / Vaccines
Cattle disease vaccine launched 30 years after invention
An effective vaccine that languished, underused, for 30 years after its invention has finally been released commercially as a result of a new scheme for getting innovation into practice. The vaccine protects cattle against the deadly East Coast Fever (ECF), which kills two cows every minute — one million a year — causing economic losses … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 