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
Category Archives: Zoonotic Diseases
Bird flu and other diseases transmitted from animals to humans
Combating zoonoses in emergent livestock systems – Meta-database of potential approaches
Zoonoses pose an increasing problem globally due to increasing world human population, intensifying livestock production and ongoing encroachment of people into formerly sheltered natural ecosystems and greater contact with wildlife. Technical solutions alone are not enough to respond to this increasing challenge. Understanding the social, cultural, economic and governance issues around zoonoses in different regions, … Continue reading
Aliens in human brains: Pig tapeworm is an alarming, and important, human disease worldwide
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
ILRI hosts Ohio State University One Health Summer Institute
On 21 May, the Ohio State University- Eastern Africa Track II Certification training in collaboration with ILRI will commence in Addis Ababa, with courses also offered in other locations. The training will run through July 27, 2012. Read more Continue reading
Could Rift Valley fever be a weapon of mass destruction? An insidious insect-animal-people infection loop explored
The Fifth Plague: Livestock Disease, woodcut by Gustave Doré, 1866 (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). Anthrax, bird flu , Ebola, HIV-AIDS, H1N1, H5N1, influenza, Rift Valley fever, SARS: What are the disease links between people, animals and environments? And what are we doing to protect ourselves against the next outbreak of a deadly infectious disease? … Continue reading
Why animals matter to human health and nutrition
Human, livestock and environmental health are inextricably linked, Sixty-one per cent of all diseases are ‘zoonotic’ –that is, transmissible between animals and humans. Continue reading
Livestock and human health – directions for ILRI
As part of a session on ‘livestock and human health’ at the recent ‘LiveSTOCK Exchange’ event, Brian Perry interviewed a panel of ILRI staff on future research in this area as part of the new CGIAR Research Program (CRP4) on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health. Topics addressed by Delia Grace include the topical and … Continue reading
Agriculture-associated diseases research at ILRI: Food, farming and human health
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Delia Grace, Bernard Bett, Eric Fèvre and John McDermott prepared a series of issue briefs on livestock and human health … Agricultural innovation has allowed massive expansion of people and their animals. Yet as the world population passed 7 billion in October 2011, more than one … Continue reading
Livestock experts to raise profile of livestock and human health research
Livestock experts reflect on livestock research over the past decade and trends that will drive future livestock research during the ‘Livestock Exchange’ held 9-10 November 2011 at ILRI in Ethiopia (picture credit: ILRI/Ewen Le Borgne). Livestock researchers, meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, say that managing livestock diseases of developing countries can save lives as well … Continue reading
Driven by technology, (finally) embracing diversity: A geneticist’s views on the evolution of biotech research at ILRI
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Steve Kemp, a livestock molecular geneticist, reflects on the evolution of ILRI’s research agenda and the role of biotechnology research in that agenda . . . Steve Kemp first came to the Nairobi campus of the International Livestock research Institute (ILRI) in 1985 when it was … Continue reading