Ivan Morrison, of the University of Edinburgh, formerly of ILRAD, awarded the inaugural Plowright Prize for his lifelong research towards a vaccine for East Coast fever
Africa / Award / Cattle / Disease Control / ECF / Europe / ILRI / Kenya / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research / Staff / UK / Vaccines

Ivan Morrison, of the University of Edinburgh, formerly of ILRAD, awarded the inaugural Plowright Prize for his lifelong research towards a vaccine for East Coast fever

RCVS Knowledge, the charity partner of the UK’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, has awarded its inaugural Plowright Prize to Professor William Ivan Morrison of the University of Edinburgh for his research combating the cattle disease East Coast fever. Ivan Morrison started his career at ILRAD, a predecessor of ILRI, where he worked from 1975 to 1990, leading, and building up, ILRAD’s research program on East Coast fever for many of those years. Continue reading

Mobile pastoralism—A 10,000-year-old practice still robust, if threatened, in the Mediterranean today
Biodiversity / Cattle / Climate Change / Environment / Europe / Goats / Pastoralism / Policy / Rangelands / Sheep / Small Ruminants

Mobile pastoralism—A 10,000-year-old practice still robust, if threatened, in the Mediterranean today

Mobile Pastoralism in the Mediterranean: Arguments and evidence for policy reform and its role in combating climate change presents over 100 arguments detailing the benefits of mobile pastoralism to biodiversity, carbon storage, wildfire prevention, climate change, food security and quality, traditional ecological knowledge, rural economies, tourism—to name a few. Continue reading

DFID/UKAid fund British, ILRI, African genetics research to advance African livestock development
Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Breeding / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Biotechnology / Cattle / CGIAR / Climate Change / CTLGH / Dairying / East Africa / Europe / Genetics / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Launch / LiveGene / Poultry / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research / Trypanosomiasis / UK / Vaccines / Zoonotic Diseases

DFID/UKAid fund British, ILRI, African genetics research to advance African livestock development

During the visit Ms Mordaunt also announced plans to develop the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health, which is based in both Edinburgh and Nairobi. The centre uses the most recent scientific advances in genetics and genomics that are being used by farmers in the UK and apply these to help smallholder dairy and poultry farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Continue reading

Fighting climate change in a post-modernist world of pop art politics—Opinion by Phil Thornton
CCAFS / Climate Change / Environment / Europe / ILRI / North America / Opinion piece / Policy / Research / SLS / UK / USA

Fighting climate change in a post-modernist world of pop art politics—Opinion by Phil Thornton

Phil Thornton leads CGIAR research on institutions and policies for climate-resilient food systems. He makes the case for better and closer scientist-citizen engagement in an opinion piece published this week in the wake of this year’s national political election results in Australia, the UK and the USA. Continue reading

Belgian artist’s 20-year chicken breeding project makes artistic, environmental (maybe philosophical) statement
ACGG / Animal Breeding / Article / Biodiversity / Breeds / Chickens / Environment / Europe / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / LiveGene / Poultry

Belgian artist’s 20-year chicken breeding project makes artistic, environmental (maybe philosophical) statement

Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen has created a chicken with genes from different chicken breeds from all over the world. Now he’s bringing it to America to help diversify our poultry. Continue reading

Agriculture / Article / Dairying / Europe / ILRIComms / Nutrition / Pastoralism

Europe’s ‘milk revolution’: First Neolithic cheese-making, then a genetic mutation allowing lactose persistence

Oscypek, a ‘must taste’ when visiting Polish mountains, is the most famous cheese in Poland today; it is made from salted sheep milk, smoked and formed in traditional wooden forms (photo credit: Tom Karas/PolishFoodInfo.com). In 2011, Mélanie Roffet-Salque, a geochemist at the University of Bristol, UK, found signatures of abundant milk fats — evidence that early farmers, … Continue reading