Category Archives: ILRI

Camels / Cattle / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Ethiopia / Goats / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Pastoralism / Project / Sheep / Somalia / Trade / Vulnerability

Foolhardy? Or just hardy? New project tackles climate change and livestock markets in the Horn

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If only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the tropical midday sun, what shall we say of Americans in Alabama and Kenya setting out to learn from, and support, sales of livestock in the hot and drying badlands extending across the Horn of Africa? This is what Peter Little, of Emory University, and Polly … Continue reading →

Supporting dryland pastoralism with eco-conservancies, livestock insurance and livestock-based drought interventions
Biodiversity / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Research / Southern Africa / Vulnerability

Supporting dryland pastoralism with eco-conservancies, livestock insurance and livestock-based drought interventions

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The wildlfie-rich rangelands of Kitengela, outside Nairobi, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Scientists at the Nairobi, Kenya, headquarters of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are this week hosting a regional inception workshop on a new CGIAR Research Program on dryland agriculture. Three livestock-based models likely to be discussed at this week’s dryland agriculture workshop … Continue reading →

Animal Health / Central Africa / Congo-DR / Disease Control / Goats / ILRI / PPR / Sheep / Small Ruminants

A livestock plague is killing Congo’s goats and sheep

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Goat and people share a road in Goma, DRC (photo on Flickr by Robert Guerra). Voice of America is reporting on a new livestock epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The highly contagious viral disease is known as ‘peste des petits ruminants’, or PPR for short, sometimes as ‘ovine rinderpest’, and more … Continue reading →

Agriculture / CGIAR / Directorate / Food Security / ILRI / Launch / Policy

Crop, tree, water, livestock and fish scientists call for action at Rio+20 sustainable development summit

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CGIAR centres and initiatives signing a 7-point ‘CGIAR Call to Action’ at the June 2012 Rio+20 UN sustainable development summit. Mark Kinver at the BBC reports today on a global group calling for decision-makers at the June Rio+20 sustainable development summit to take a concerted approach to agricultural policy, based on science. The International Livestock … Continue reading →

ILRI / Pigs / Zoonotic Diseases

Aliens in human brains: Pig tapeworm is an alarming, and important, human disease worldwide

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Pork infected with pig tapeworm cysts (photo credit: ILRI/Fahrion). An article in this month’s Discover Magazine reports on infection with pig tapeworm, or cysticercosis, a target disease of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) that is rare in the industrialized world but unfortunately not at all rare in poor countries. ‘. . . Before they … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / ASF / Asia / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Europe / Event / ILRI / North America / Pigs / Vaccines

African swine fever is growing threat to poor and rich countries alike

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Participants of an African swine fever workshop held in July 2011 at ILRI’s Nairobi headquarters: (From left) Raymond Rowland (Kansas State University), David Odongo (ILRI), Richard Bishop (ILRI), Maria-Jesus Munoz (Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal-Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias) and Jose-Manuel Vizcaino (head of the World Animal Health Organisation’s African Swine Fever World Reference … Continue reading →

CCAFS / CGIAR / Climate Change / Environment / Food Security / ILRI / NRM / Opinion piece

Move our global food systems into a ‘safe space’–Memo to G8 from CGIAR’s Bruce Campbell

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Watch this elegant 6-minute film: How to fed the world by 2050: Actions in a changing climate. Film summary: To achieve food security in a changing climate, the global community must operate within three limits: the quantity of food that can be produced under a given climate; the quantity needed by a growing and changing … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Dairying / East Africa / Ethiopia / Extension / ILRI / Interview / IPMS / Markets

Market-oriented agricultural extension important for Ethiopia – ILRI tells BBC

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The Ethiopian economy is currently witnessing strong growth; however agricultural productivity in the smallholder sector, in dairying for example, is not as high as it could be. The BBC reports on developments in the country, including from a dairy development project of the Dutch development organization SNV. As part of the report, Berhanu Gebremedhin of … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Article / Cattle / CBPP / Genetics / Geodata / Goats / ILRI

Lethal family tree: ILRI research shows livestock bacterium is as old as the livestock it kills

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Aurochs were the ancestors of domestic cattle (photo on Flickr by Marcus Sümnick). Lucas Brouwers, in a blog on Scientific American, has picked up on an interesting genetics study conducted at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, which targets a cattle disease known as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (or CBPP for short). The study … Continue reading →