A new report from ILRI and IIED reviews the effectiveness of training and certification schemes designed to give small-scale ‘informal’ sellers of ‘raw’ and/or boiled or informally pasteurized milk and (in India) milk sweets greater market access in East Africa and South Asia. The report reviews such schemes in Kenya and Tanzania and in the state of Assam, in northwestern India. In all three countries, the informal sector dominates dairy marketing and trade and informal milk production and trade contribute significantly to the employment, livelihoods and nutrition of many millions of poor people. Continue reading
Category Archives: Kenya
ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station to serve as conservancy and critical wildlife corridor for Nairobi National Park
ILRI and Swara Plains Conservancy declare their 32,000 and 15,000 acres of rangeland, respectively, in Kenya for wildlife conservation. Continue reading
Ivan Morrison, of the University of Edinburgh, formerly of ILRAD, awarded the inaugural Plowright Prize for his lifelong research towards a vaccine for East Coast fever
RCVS Knowledge, the charity partner of the UK’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, has awarded its inaugural Plowright Prize to Professor William Ivan Morrison of the University of Edinburgh for his research combating the cattle disease East Coast fever. Ivan Morrison started his career at ILRAD, a predecessor of ILRI, where he worked from 1975 to 1990, leading, and building up, ILRAD’s research program on East Coast fever for many of those years. Continue reading
The geometry of disease: A longitudinal calf cohort study in Kenya has yielded a unique database and biorepository
The IDEAL project, first attempt to study the complete pathogen landscape of any species, has generated a unique dataset and biorepository for researchers of infectious diseases of cattle in East Africa. Continue reading
Do Kenya’s camel handlers face a threat from MERS? What we found
In Kenya, camels are a very popular animal to keep as livestock. There’s value in their meat and milk products and as a result, there are now over three million camels in the country. But there is a danger that the people who come into contact with camels, and their products, face getting the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). MERS is a disease in people caused by a coronavirus (MERS-CoV) which was first identified in Saudia Arabia in 2012. Continue reading
Deadline for submitting abstracts for the Joint International Grassland/Rangeland Congress extended to 23 Dec 2019
The deadline for submissions for papers and posters for the Joint International Grassland and International Rangeland Congress, to be held 24–30 Oct 2020, in Nairobi, Kenya, has been extended to 23rd December 2019. Submit your abstracts for posters and oral presentations and proposals for concurrent panel sessions through the congress website. The next Joint International … Continue reading
Don’t believe the scare stories, Kenyan milk is a big success
We sent the following note to Parents Africa magazine, which published an unfortunately alarmist article recently based on research conducted by ILRI scientists. A recent article in Parents Africa magazine reaches some unduly alarming conclusions about the milk sold in Nairobi—and attributes them to research published by scientists here at the International Livestock Research Institute … Continue reading
Joint Grasslands and Rangelands Congress will be held in Nairobi in Oct 2020
The Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and the Kenya State Department of Livestock within the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation (MALFI) are organizing next year’s Joint 24th International Grasslands and International Rangelands Congress, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, 25–30 Oct 2020. Continue reading
Kenyan livestock sector to grow ‘exponentially’—Kenya National Bureau of Statistics
Kenya’s livestock sector is primed to grow exponentially over the next three decades and anchor the country’s food sufficiency amid a rapid rise in the human population, a new survey showed. Continue reading
Guiding investments in climate-smart livestock systems in East Africa
New project aims to ensure that key actors in the livestock sector increase climate change adaptation and mitigation in farming practices, sector strategies and investment projects. Continue reading