The once-looming public health threat has receded… But we’re Still Understanding Our Role in Such Outbreaks The American media circus has moved on, the drugstores are removing the “H1N1 Vaccinations Available Here” signs, and most people are engaged with other concerns. Like SARS, avian flu and hantavirus, swine flu is yesterday’s scare. But perhaps we’re … Continue reading
Category Archives: Emerging Diseases
Under emerging zoonotic diseases, we work on bird flu and other emerging diseases in developing countries, understanding and mapping the risks associated with these.
Sustaining global surveillance and response to emerging zoonotic diseases
H1N1 (“swine flu”), SARS, mad cow disease, and HIV/AIDS are a few examples of zoonotic diseases-diseases transmitted between humans and animals. Zoonotic diseases are a growing concern given multiple factors: their often novel and unpredictable nature, their ability to emerge anywhere and spread rapidly around the globe, and their major economic toll on several disparate … Continue reading
Ministerial conference to discuss animal and pandemic influenza
A ministerial conference to marshal international cooperation against the advance of new infectious diseases opens this month in Hanoi, drawing on experience gained in responses to pandemic A/H1N1 influenza and H5N1 avian influenza. The conference will set the scene for a worldwide effort, over the next 20 years, for tackling threats to people’s health that … Continue reading
Good practices for biosecurity in the pig sector
Animal diseases that are known to spread primarily through human activities can be prevented and controlled through the application of biosecurity measures along the production and marketing chain, together with increased awareness and education. It is this notion that makes biosecurity so critically important in the prevention, control and elimination of transboundary animal diseases (TADs), … Continue reading
Challenges posed by new and re-emerging infectious diseases in livestock production, wildlife and humans
In a new article in Livestock Science, B. Gummow examines some historical disease outbreaks and the factors that played a role in their emergence and compares these with recent emerging diseases. In doing so it highlights certain challenges that face livestock producers and decision makers today as they grapple with emerging diseases. One of the … Continue reading
USDA ARS and NIFA hold priorities workshop on animal health research
USDA’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) held a two day workshop on March 23rd and 24th to discuss research priorities in the area of animal health. The workshop was well attended by a mix of industry, academia and government representatives. The goal of the workshop was to develop … Continue reading
Implications of avian flu for economic development in Kenya
Kenya is vulnerable to avian flu given its position along migratory bird routes and proximity to other high risk countries. This raises concern about the effect an outbreak could have on economic development. We use a dynamic computable general equilibrium model of Kenya to simulate potential outbreaks of different severities, durations and geographic spreads. Results … Continue reading
Managing the risk of emerging diseases: From rhetoric to action
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
Sustaining global surveillance and response to emerging zoonotic diseases
In Late 2009, the US National Academies launched a report calling for “a comprehensive, globally coordinated system to identify novel zoonotic disease threats as early as possible wherever they arise so appropriate measures can be taken to prevent significant numbers of human illnesses and deaths, and livestock losses.” The report argues that “zoonotic diseases are … Continue reading
Nigeria: swine flu not from pigs, says expert
The media has been accused of sowing confusion among members of the public and in the process causing loss among farmers over the true origin of what it describes as swine flu. The chief veterinary officer in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Joseph Nyager, told THISDAY, that the so-called swine flu … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 