Participatory epidemiology training course kicks off in Togo

Posted on 25 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

This week, the Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) holds a 5-day training course for trainers in Participatory Epidemiology, in Lomé, Togo. The 11 participants were selected from the 29 Participatory Disease Surveillance (PDS) practitioners trained in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo as part of the Early Detection Reporting Surveillance … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Disease Control / East Africa / Epidemiology / ILRI / Livestock / Markets / Trade / Uganda

Livestock trade is culprit in sleeping sickness spread

Posted on 25 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

Scientists baffled by the continued spread of sleeping sickness through Uganda have discovered that it is livestock markets that are driving the disease. A team from Uganda and the United Kingdom analysed the incidence of the serious Rhodesian form of sleeping sickness, which is carried by cattle, in two newly affected districts. They confirmed that … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Products / East Africa / Livestock / Markets / Trade

East Africa losing millions on exports of unprocessed leather

Posted on 25 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

Livestock experts want East African countries to invest more in the processing of hides and skins in order to increase revenue. Largely neglected as a village-based enterprise for arid and semi-arid areas, the experts argue that the leather sub-sector could inject additional revenue into regional economies through value addition. According to the permanent secretary in … Continue reading →

Asia / Livestock / Markets / Southeast Asia / Vietnam

Vietnam livestock industry under review

Posted on 25 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

The animal husbandry and poultry sectors will be reviewed and restructured so that they develop in a sustainable and competitive manner, an official said at a conference in HCM City yesterday. Hoang Kim Giao, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Husbandry Department, said under the Livestock Development Strategy, the country would … Continue reading →

Africa / Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock

Equity Bank and UAP will insure Kenyan herders against drought

Posted on 24 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

Equity Bank Ltd. and UAP Insurance Ltd. will insure livestock in northern Kenya against starvation and are offering the first African insurance program that will use satellite images to predict drought. The index-based product will initially be sold to herders of camels, cows, goats and sheep in Kenya’s arid Marsabit district, the Nairobi, Kenya-based International … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock / Pastoralism / Research

Kenyan herders to be offered livestock insurance against drought

Posted on 22 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

Herders in northern Kenya who suffered large cattle losses during recent droughts are to be offered livestock insurance in a pioneering project that uses satellite imagery of available grazing to determine when payouts occur. The scheme, billed as a world first by the International Livestock Research Institute, is being launched today in the arid Marsabit … Continue reading →

Africa / Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Research

Satellites to help Kenyans secure against drought

Posted on 22 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

“This is a new approach to tackle an old problem,” Carlos Sere, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), said of the satellite-based insurance for cattle, goats and other animals. Satellite images will measure the greenness of vegetation in the Marsabit area of northern Kenya. A shift to brown will trigger payouts to … Continue reading →

Cattle / Climate Change / Consumption / Environment / Europe / UK

McDonalds on hunt for climate-friendly beef

Posted on 22 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

Fast-food chain McDonalds is on the hunt for new methods to produce a climate-friendly beef burger. The burger giant, which sources 350,000 cows from over 16,000 British and Irish farms every year, has launched a three-year study to cut methane emissions from its livestock. The study will take place on 350 farms across Britain and … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Biotechnology / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya

Biotechnology is key to food security in Africa

Posted on 21 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • 2 Comments

Africa missed on the “Green Revolution” that drove Asia; the West and the larger America out of food insecurity five decades ago, but Agricultural Scientists in Kenya say, it should not miss out on the “Gene Revolution” seen to transform food production policy in the continent. First, the statement marks the progress Agriculture Science has … Continue reading →

Africa / Environment / Pastoralism / Wildlife

Why Africa’s national parks are failing to save wildlife

Posted on 20 Jan 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

The traditional parks model of closing off areas and keeping people out simply may not work in Africa, where human demands on the land are great. Instead, what’s needed is an approach that finds ways to enable people and animals to co-exist. “Pastoralists had herded their cattle in harmony with wildlife for thousands of years,” … Continue reading →