Category Archives: Disease Control

Under vaccines, we develop vaccines for livestock diseases, focusing especially on ways to improve immune responses to protozoa parasites. We also improve existing vaccines (ECF, CBPP) and develop molecular approaches to problems.

Toughening animal agriculture for worse climate with ‘preventive breeding’–Scientific American
A4NH / Animal Breeding / Article / Biotechnology / CCAFS / CGIAR / Climate Change / Disease Control / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / LiveGene

Toughening animal agriculture for worse climate with ‘preventive breeding’–Scientific American

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Scientists from . . . CGIAR . . . are setting up a “preemptive breeding” program to develop livestock with resistance to potential widespread outbreaks of currently localized diseases to help reduce some of the losses that would occur. CGIAR scientists presented their preemptive breeding strategy and new evidence of threats from climate change to the science advisory body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on June 4. Continue reading →

Agri-Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Disease Control / East Africa / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa

Parasites to the rescue: Study suggests dual infections may help control livestock and human infectious diseases

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Deaths caused by East Coast fever, the biggest killer of East African cattle, dropped 89 per cent among calves which were also infected with other species of parasite that do not cause disease. Continue reading →

Agri-Health / Animal Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Diagnostics / Disease Control / East Africa / ECF / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa

When two parasites are better than one: (Unusual) insights into ways to combat human parasitic diseases

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Portrait of one of Kenya’s  Improved Boran breed of cattle (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). ‘Parasites found in African cattle could offer a new insight into ways of combatting serious parasitic diseases in humans, including malaria. A team funded by the Wellcome Trust has found that cows can be protected from parasites that cause deadly diseases … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Article / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / FSZ / Geodata / Human Health / ILRI

Livestock in poor countries need drugs to stay alive and productive, but how to avoid the rise of ‘super bugs’?

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Developing-country livestock keepers need more and better drugs to keep their animals alive and productive, and there are increasing numbers of livestock in the South, where there is increasing use of antimicrobial drugs, and poor livestock keepers will be hurt the most by development in pathogens of antimicrobial resistance. So what’s needed to avoid ‘super bugs’ arising? A new PNAS paper has this to say. Continue reading →

Agri-Health / Animal Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Disease Control / East Africa / ECF / Epidemiology / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa / Staff / Vaccines

New paper on parasitic infections shows the benefits of co-infections with the ‘mild cousins’ of important pathogens

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Herds of African cattle may hold the secret to new ways of fighting parasitic diseases like malaria, which kills some 600,000 people a year, scientists said on Friday. Continue reading →

Agri-Health / Animal Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Disease Control / East Africa / ECF / Epidemiology / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa / Staff / Vaccines

ILRI’s Philip Toye VOA interview on East Coast fever, and the benefits of co-parasitic infections

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Voice of America’s Joe DeCapua interview Phil Toye, a scientist with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), about a paper published this week in Science Advance. Continue reading →

A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Article / Books and chapters / Brucellosis / Consumption / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / FSZ / Human Health / ILRI / Launch / Markets

Informal markets main source of food for Africa’s poor: Today and tomorrow

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‘. . . According to studies by scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), informal markets . . . provide essential sources of food and income for millions of poor, with milk and meat that is often safer than supermarkets. Blunt crack-downs on informal milk and meat sellers that are a critical source of food and income for millions of people are not the solution,” Delia Grace, ILRI’s program leader for food Safety and Zoonoses, said during the launch of the study in Nairobi on Tuesday. Continue reading →

A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Article / Books and chapters / Brucellosis / Consumption / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / FSZ / Human Health / ILRI / Launch / Markets

Local vendors, not supermarkets, are key to Africa’s food security

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Simple food safety training for informal vendors can limit the spread of SARS, avian influenza, tuberculosis and pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli, said the book, “Food safety and informal markets: Animal products in sub-Saharan Africa”. Continue reading →