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.

A4NH / Agri-Health / CCAFS / Climate Change / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Food Security / Kenya / RVF / Zoonotic Diseases

Healthy Futures project examines ways to understand vector-borne diseases, climate change and food security

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Together with regional stakeholders, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) generated so-called ‘socio-economic scenarios’.  These scenarios aim to explore key regional socio-economic and governance uncertainties for food security, environment and livelihoods through integrated qualitative-quantitative descriptions of plausible futures to 2030. The CCAFS vision has been to use these scenarios with … Continue reading →

A4NH / Animal Health / Cattle / Dairying / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / Zoonotic Diseases

‘Crypto’ and other diseases we get from animals are on the rise in poor countries

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Leonard Gitau, a small-scale livestock farmer in Dagoretti, Nairobi, speaks to journalists during a media tour of urban farmers in Nairobi on 21 Sep 2012 (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). Sarah Ooko, special correspondent for the East African, reports that ‘animal to human diseases are on the rise’ in this region. ‘Zoonoses’ is the term used … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Film and video / Food Safety / Human Health / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / Report / Zoonotic Diseases

Slum livestock = Food? Income? Disease? All three?–Al Jazeera reports on ILRI research

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Peter Greste, a journalist with Al Jazeera, recently accompanied veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace to the slums of Nairobi, to take a first-hand look at ‘urban farming’, livestock farming in particular. Grace works for the International Livestock Research Institute and leads a health component of a new multi-institutional CGIAR Research Program on … Continue reading →

A4NH / Animal Diseases / Article / Bangladesh / Bird flu / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Film and video / ILRI / Kenya / Nigeria / Uganda / Zoonotic Diseases

Draconian bans on urban livestock in developing countries ‘not the answer’–Guardian on ILRI report

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Customers at a milk bar in Ndumbuini in Kabete, Nairobi  (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). Mark Tran in the Guardian‘s Poverty Matters Blog warns us this week not to keep chickens under our beds. On the other hand, he infers, chicken bought on the street in poor countries may be safer to eat than that from … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Bird flu / Emerging Diseases / ILRI / North America / Pigs / Poultry / Zoonotic Diseases

The looming danger of diseases spread from farm animals to people–CNN

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A CNN report this week on ‘The looming zoonotic danger’ makes use of some astounding figures developed by veterinary epidemiologist Delia Grace and her team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Kenya. ‘We’ve seen an unprecedented rise in infectious diseases in recent decades, 75 percent of which are “zoonotic,” meaning they come … Continue reading →

Climate Change / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / Food Security / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

Five grand challenges for animal science research – ASAS takes stock

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The American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) has released five ‘Grand Challenges documents‘ that advocate research priorities for the future of animal science. The issues covered are: Animal health: Support for animal health research would improve disease resistance, disease prevention and animal productivity. Climate change: A better understanding of climate change would keep animal agriculture … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Emerging Diseases / Policy / Zoonotic Diseases

How economics adds value to animal health policy-making

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A news item on The Pig Site argues that the risk of disease among farm animals and farm biosecurity are a public affair.” The August 2012 issue of EuroChoices, the Journal of the Agricultural Economics Society and European Association of Agricultural Economists, looks at the role of economics in animal health decision making and how … Continue reading →

A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Opinion piece / RVF / Zoonotic Diseases

Animal-to-human diseases spreading with environmental changes–ILRI’s Delia Grace in The Guardian

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Villagers watch on as a team restrains a small pig for blood sampling in Luang Prabang, Laos (photo credit: ILRI/Kate Blaszak). Delia Grace, an Irish veterinary epidemiologist and public health expert at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), says shifts in forest cover, agricultural practices, mining and reservoirs are thought to be affecting the transmission … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Geodata / ILRI / Project / Report / Wildlife / Zoonotic Diseases

The ecology of disease: NYT cites ILRI study in report on rising threat of wildlife diseases transmitted to people

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Illustration by Olaf Hajek, in The New York Times Sunday Review: ‘The Ecology of disease’, 14 Jul 2012. Jim Robbins in The New York Times Sunday Review today writes about the ways breakdowns in the world’s ecosystems can ‘come back to haunt us in ways we  know little about. . . . Multimedia Graphic Hot … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / ILRI / Project / Report / Zoonotic Diseases

New findings of human-animal disease burden carried by world’s poor–IRIN and Reuters

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This transmission electron micrograph (TEM) depicted a number of Nipah virus virions that had been isolated from a patient’s cerebrospinal fluid. Nipah virus, related but not identical to Hendra virus, was initially isolated in 1999 upon examining samples from an outbreak of encephalitis and respiratory illness among adult men in Malaysia and Singapore (image credit: Microbe … Continue reading →