Small livestock, big impact

Posted on 8 Mar 2012 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Kenyan geneticist and new PhD Sheila Ommeh (right) works at the Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA Hub) and ILRI’s animal health laboratories in Nairobi, Kenya, studying Africa’s native chicken breeds (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). ‘Sheila Ommeh, a poultry geneticist at the International Livestock Research Centre in Nairobi, hopes to introduce a disease-resistant chicken … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / ASF / BecA / Burundi / Disease Control / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Project / Rwanda / Tanzania / Uganda / Vaccines

Devastating African disease of pigs gets new attention and funding

Posted on 14 Feb 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

African Swine Fever Workshop, July 2011, Nairobi; from left: Raymond Rowland (Kansas State University), David Odongo (ILRI), Richard Bishop (ILRI), Maria-Jesus Munoz (CISA-INIA) and Jose-Manuel Vizcaino (Head of OIE ASF World Reference Centre Madrid) on a visit to the new BecA-ILRI laboratories (photo credit: ILRI/Edward Okoth). New Agriculturist reported late last year on renewed research … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / CBPP / Disease Control / ILRI / Launch / North America / Research / USA / Vaccines

US National Science Foundation’s BREAD funds Craig Venter and ILRI to battle cattle pneumonia in Africa

Posted on 13 Feb 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Dinner with philanthropist Bill Gates at the home of genome-czar J Craig Venter in La Jolla, California, in 2008 (photo by jurvetson on Flickr). ‘Gates asked the most astute and detailed questions about microbiology’, JCVI reports, and said, ‘DNA is the most interesting software there is.’ The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Biotechnology / Diagnostics / Disease Control / Drylands / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Epidemiology / Event / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Research / RVF / Southern Africa / USA / Zoonotic Diseases

Could Rift Valley fever be a weapon of mass destruction? An insidious insect-animal-people infection loop explored

Posted on 12 Feb 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

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 →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Australia / BecA / Biotechnology / Cattle / CBPP / Disease Control / Goats / ILRI / PPR / Sheep / Small Ruminants / Vaccines

Australia steps up support for research in Africa to reduce the continent’s heavy livestock disease burden

Posted on 28 Dec 2011 by Susan MacMillan • 2 Comments

ILRI scientist Joerg Jores (right) tells German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited the ILRI-BecA labs in July 2011, about his livestock disease research (photo credit: ILRI/Njoroge). ‘Owning large livestock is like money in the bank for African farmers, but major diseases significantly threaten their future. ‘Among these are [peste des petits ruminants], a viral disease … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Breeding / Animal Diseases / Disease Control / East Africa / Epidemiology / Ethiopia / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Livestock / Poultry / Project / Research

Tackling poultry diseases in Ethiopia

Posted on 5 Dec 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • 2 Comments

Developing countries such as Ethiopia have many indigenous chicken varieties which are well adapted to local environments as they are excellent foragers, better able to avoid predator attacks and demonstrate better immunity to common diseases. However, due to relatively low genetic potential and poor levels of husbandry, most of these indigenous chicken breeds grow slowly … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Animal Production / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Food Safety / Human Health / ILRI / Livestock / Report / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

Agriculture-associated diseases research at ILRI: Food, farming and human health

Posted on 12 Nov 2011 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Delia Grace, Bernard Bett, Eric Fèvre and John McDermott prepared a series of issue briefs on livestock and human health … Agricultural innovation has allowed massive expansion of people and their animals. Yet as the world population passed 7 billion in October 2011, more than one … Continue reading →

Animal Production / BecA / Diagnostics / Disease Control / Film and video / ILRI / Kenya / Tanzania / Uganda / Vaccines

A focus on focus: Reining in an eclectic past to make a bigger difference

Posted on 8 Nov 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Tom Randolph, an American agricultural economist recently appointed director of a new multi-centre CGIAR Research Program (3.7: Livestock and Fish), reflects on ILRI’s longstanding strategic path toward greater disciplinary integration to achieve greater coherence and impact. An agricultural economist who came … Continue reading →

Biotechnology / Diagnostics / Disease Control / ECF / Film and video / Kenya / Livestock / RVF / Vaccines

Finding a needle in a (molecular) haystack: A decade-long search for a parasite molecule on which to build a new vaccine against East Coast fever comes to fruition

Posted on 8 Nov 2011 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Roger Pellé, a molecular biologist from Cameroon, reflects on ILRI’s biotechnology research accomplishments over the past decade that have involved partnerships with centres and countries in Africa. ‘I first came to ILRI in 1990 to work on trypanosomosis, a cattle disease … Continue reading →

BecA / CBPP / Diagnostics / Disease Control / ECF / Film and video / ILRI / Kenya / PPR / Tanzania / Uganda / Vaccines

‘Out of the lab and into the field–with our clients’: Phil Toye on getting the balance in animal health research right