Animal Breeding / Biotechnology / East Africa / Event / Film and video / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Interview / Kenya / Staff

Kenyan Bridgit Muasa on cross-breeding ‘supercows’ for Africa

Watch ‘The Importance of Livestock Production in Kenya’, a short (3:12) filmed interview by FarmingFirst at Rio+20 of 2010 AWARD Fellow Bridgit Muasa, a Kenyan livestock breeding specialist mentored by ILRI scientist Karen Marshall. Bridgit Muasa, from Kenya, is a veterinary officer with the Kenya Ministry of Livestock Development. She has been mentored in the African … 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

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

Books and chapters / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Sudan / Tanzania / Vulnerability / Wildlife

Dynamic pastoral change: A new look at the Horn’s resourceful, innovative livestock peoples

(Left) water gourd, Kenya, Northern Frontier District, Boran or Gubbra tribe, on loan from Gary K Clarke, Cowabunga Safaris; (right) calabash, Kenya, Maasai, on loan from Gary K Clarke, Cowabunga Safaris (photo credit: Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library / Betsy Roe). A new book from the STEPS Centre, in the UK, takes a fresh look at … 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

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

Africa / Animal Production / Asia / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / Event / Goats / ILRI / India / Innovation Systems / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / Mozambique / South Asia / Southern Africa

Innovation platforms: Documenting experiences from the imGoats project and beyond

Innovation platforms are a complex and some would say a not-so-straightforward approach. Nevertheless, ILRI, other CGIAR centers and other partners are using this approach in various projects such as the Nile Basin Development Challenge, IMGoats and the recently-completed Fodder Adoption and Fodder Innovation projects. What are innovation platforms exactly? This poster gives some ideas.   … Continue reading

Capacity Strengthening / ILRI / IPMS

IPMS project contributes to public sector capacity development in Ethiopia

Results based monitoring and evaluation, gender mainstreaming and mass insemination for improved dairying have been the subject of training interventions by the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers staff in recent months. Courses have been run for  staff of the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP) at federal and regional levels, to staff of regional offices … 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

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

A4NH / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Ethiopia / ILRI / India / Nigeria / Report / South Asia / USA / West Africa / Zoonotic Diseases

Human-animal diseases are emerging in the North, have biggest costs in the South–New ILRI study

Zoonotic emerging infectious disease events (non-wild hosts). Published In report to DFID by Delia Grace et al.:  Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots, ILRI, 2012 (map credit: ILRI/Delia Grace). Natasha Gilbert reports today in Nature on the ‘Cost of human-animal disease greatest for world’s poor’, noting that ‘the United States and western Europe are … Continue reading

Africa / Australia / BecA / ILRI / Research

Africa Food Security Initiative – update on an Australia-Africa partnership at the BecA Hub

To foster a long-term sustainable improvement in African food security, the Australian government has increased its investment into Africa via the Africa Food Security Initiative (AFSI). One of the AFSI partnerships is between the Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA) Hub and  the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The latest program update … Continue reading

Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Asia / CSF / ILRI / India / Pigs / Policy / South Asia / Vaccines

Preventing and controlling classical swine fever in northeast India

Classical swine fever is a highly contagious, potentially fatal viral disease that affects pigs. This disease is a major constraint to the development of pig farming systems in northeast India where pig farming is a main source of livelihood for most households. About 80 per cent of households in northeast India rear pigs and pork … Continue reading