Kenya Wildlife Service hosts training on wildlife capture and sampling techniques for disease surveillance

Posted on 5 Jun 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • 3 Comments

Emerging and re-emerging diseases some of them pandemic in proportions, pose great threat to biodiversity conservation, public health and livestock industry. The African Union’s Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and other international agencies such as Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has started training on wildlife capture and sampling techniques for disease surveillance in collaboration … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Biotechnology / CGIAR / Climate Change / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Ghana / ILRI / Malawi / RVF / Senegal / Trypanosomiasis / Zoonotic Diseases

ILRI to build climate model to predict disease outbreaks

Posted on 21 May 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), has received a $4.4 million award for research to build a climate model that can predict outbreaks of infectious disease in Africa. ILRI will work with 11 partners and researchers to integrate data from climate modeling and disease … Continue reading →

Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Livestock / Zoonotic Diseases

Lessons from swine flu

Posted on 14 May 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

The once-looming public health threat has receded… But we’re Still Understanding Our Role in Such Outbreaks The American media circus has moved on, the drugstores are removing the “H1N1 Vaccinations Available Here” signs, and most people are engaged with other concerns. Like SARS, avian flu and hantavirus, swine flu is yesterday’s scare. But perhaps we’re … Continue reading →

Bird flu / Disease Control / Livestock / Zoonotic Diseases

Despite many successes, avian influenza still threatens

Posted on 29 Apr 2010 by Dorine Adhoch • Leave a comment

FAO calls for sustained action on H5N1 and emerging infections 16 April 2010, Rome – Although concerted international action has successfully eliminated the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus from poultry in almost all the 63 countries it infected at the peak of the world outbreak in 2006, it persists in five nations and thus poses … Continue reading →

Asia / Bird flu / Disease Control / Livestock / Southeast Asia / Trade / Zoonotic Diseases

FAO studies cross-border trade of poultry commodities to improve risk management of avian influenza in the Greater Mekong Subregion

Posted on 27 Apr 2010 by Dorine Adhoch • Leave a comment

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) includes Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam and the southern provinces of China. In the GMS, the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in early 2003 and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) from 2004 to 2010 has marked this region as a hotspot for emerging infectious diseases. Animal … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Asia / Bird flu / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Zoonotic Diseases

Ministerial conference to discuss animal and pandemic influenza

Posted on 16 Apr 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

A ministerial conference to marshal international cooperation against the advance of new infectious diseases opens this month in Hanoi, drawing on experience gained in responses to pandemic A/H1N1 influenza and H5N1 avian influenza. The conference will set the scene for a worldwide effort, over the next 20 years, for tackling threats to people’s health that … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Pigs / Zoonotic Diseases

Good practices for biosecurity in the pig sector

Posted on 12 Apr 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

Animal diseases that are known to spread primarily through human activities can be prevented and controlled through the application of biosecurity measures along the production and marketing chain, together with increased awareness and education. It is this notion that makes biosecurity so critically important in the prevention, control and elimination of transboundary animal diseases (TADs), … Continue reading →

Animal Health / Bird flu / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Livestock / Zoonotic Diseases

Managing the risk of emerging diseases: From rhetoric to action

Posted on 29 Mar 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

In the last fifteen years the world witnessed the emergence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease in the United Kingdom, Hendra virus in Australia, Nipah virus in Malaysia, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or Bird Flu in Southeast Asia, and most recently Pandemic H1N1 Influenza, … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Zoonotic Diseases

Sustaining global surveillance and response to emerging zoonotic diseases

Posted on 16 Mar 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

In Late 2009, the US National Academies launched a report calling for “a comprehensive, globally coordinated system to identify novel zoonotic disease threats as early as possible wherever they arise so appropriate measures can be taken to prevent significant numbers of human illnesses and deaths, and livestock losses.” The report argues that “zoonotic diseases are … Continue reading →

Animal Health / Bird flu / Disease Control / Europe / Zoonotic Diseases

Swiss tackle the threat of animal diseases

Posted on 5 Mar 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

BSE, bird flu, foot and mouth, bluetongue, swine flu – it’s been an active decade for animal diseases and Swiss authorities are now preparing for the next wave. As veterinary experts know, it’s not a question of if the next big disease outbreak happens but when, something that the new Swiss animal health strategy aims … Continue reading →