COVID-19 gives the ‘One Health’ approach to tackling epidemics ‘global celebrity status’. Again.
Advocacy / Agri-Health / COVID19 / Directorate / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Human Health / OneHealth / Opinion piece / Zoonotic Diseases

COVID-19 gives the ‘One Health’ approach to tackling epidemics ‘global celebrity status’. Again.

Recent past pandemics, such as bird flu, swine flu and MERS likewise led to the potential of One Health being acclaimed. But the present COVID-19 pandemic reveals that the implementation of One Health has not matched its periodic celebrity status. So what is the problem? Continue reading

What keeps Bill Gates up at night? A (highly prescient) 2015 article spells out our COVID-19 challenges today
Agri-Health / COVID19 / Directorate / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRIComms / News clipping / Opinion piece / Zoonotic Diseases

What keeps Bill Gates up at night? A (highly prescient) 2015 article spells out our COVID-19 challenges today

Gates’s model showed that a Spanish flu–like disease unleashed on the modern world would kill more than 33 million people in 250 days. “We’ve created, in terms of spread, the most dangerous environment that we’ve ever had in the history of mankind,” Gates says. Continue reading

Deadline for submitting abstracts for the Joint International Grassland/Rangeland Congress extended to 23 Dec 2019
Animal Feeding / Animal Health / Animal Production / Biodiversity / Communications / Directorate / Event / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Rangelands / SLS

Deadline for submitting abstracts for the Joint International Grassland/Rangeland Congress extended to 23 Dec 2019

The deadline for submissions for papers and posters for the Joint International Grassland and International Rangeland Congress, to be held 24–30 Oct 2020, in Nairobi, Kenya, has been extended to 23rd December 2019. Submit your abstracts for posters and oral presentations and proposals for concurrent panel sessions through the congress website. The next Joint International … Continue reading

The British High Commissioner to Kenya visits ILRI’s Nairobi livestock labs and campus
Animal Feeding / Animal Health / Animal Production / Biotechnology / Capacity Strengthening / CGIAR / Directorate / East Africa / Event report / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / Pro-Poor Livestock / UK

The British High Commissioner to Kenya visits ILRI’s Nairobi livestock labs and campus

The British High Commissioner to Kenya, His Excellency Mr Nic Hailey, made a courtesy visit to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on Tuesday, 31 July 2018. Continue reading

Accelerating the development of agricultural value chains in Kenya—AVCD Conference Highlights
Agriculture / Animal Breeding / Animal Feeding / Animal Health / AVCD / Cattle / CGIAR / Climate Change / Crops / Dairying / Disease Control / East Africa / Event report / Extension / Food Security / Forages / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Markets / Nutrition / Policy / SLS / Value Chains

Accelerating the development of agricultural value chains in Kenya—AVCD Conference Highlights

Twitter Moment highlights of the Accelerated Value Chain Development Conference at ILRI on 26–27 Apr 2018. Continue reading

Illegal land sales imperil unique treasure—by Jimmy Smith
Communications / Directorate / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Opinion piece / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research

Illegal land sales imperil unique treasure—by Jimmy Smith

The following opinion piece was written by Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). and published in the Daily Nation (Kenya) on 15 January 2018.
The vibrant and rapidly growing local livestock sector contributes more than 40 per cent of revenues and employs half of the labour force in Kenya’s agriculture industry.
Now, the greedy actions of a few are threatening the future of many millions of people and decades of livestock research.
Also lost in the lawless Kapiti land grab is that the Ilri station is a vital wildlife corridor and dispersal area for Kenya’s Southern Conservancy Area. Continue reading

Jimmy Smith speaks in Australia on the pursuit of a ‘low-emissions cow’ and other livestock matters
Animal Breeding / Australia / Directorate / ECF / Genetics / ILRI / News clipping / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research

Jimmy Smith speaks in Australia on the pursuit of a ‘low-emissions cow’ and other livestock matters

‘Visiting Brisbane in November for the International Tropical Agriculture Conference for 2017, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute Dr. Jimmy Smith discussed with Devex a range of new and exciting programs his organization is delivering to help create climate and disease resistant livestock for Africa.’ Continue reading

In pursuit of low-emissions cows—ILRI’s Jimmy Smith and John Goopy on transforming ‘idling’ cows to climate-smart animals ‘zooming down the highway’
Advocacy / Animal Breeding / Cattle / Dairying / ILRI / News clipping / Sheep / SLS

In pursuit of low-emissions cows—ILRI’s Jimmy Smith and John Goopy on transforming ‘idling’ cows to climate-smart animals ‘zooming down the highway’

Researchers are on the hunt for a cow that produces less methane, one of the major contributors to climate change. If and when those green genes can be easily isolated, they could be spread throughout global cattle populations. Continue reading

The many benefits of livestock are the focus of an international meeting in Addis Ababa
Animal Feeding / Animal Health / Animal Production / Animal Products / Directorate / Environment / Ethiopia / Event report / Food Security / ILRI / ILRIComms / News clipping / Nutrition / Policy / Poverty / Pro-Poor Livestock

The many benefits of livestock are the focus of an international meeting in Addis Ababa

The 7th multi-stakeholder partnership meeting of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock kicked off on Monday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. The four-day meeting, which attracted more than 250 livestock specialists from 50 countries, aims to strengthen the role of livestock in supporting livelihoods, producing safe food and protecting the environment. It focuses on demonstrating the positive contribution of livestock to the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the world, and fostering the sustainable development of the rapidly growing sector. Continue reading

Expanding livestock insurance coverage in Turkana—and across all of Kenya’s great dryland pastoral communities
AVCD / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / News clipping / Opinion piece / Pastoralism / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Rangelands / Resilience

Expanding livestock insurance coverage in Turkana—and across all of Kenya’s great dryland pastoral communities

The following excerpts of an opinion piece were written by ILRI’s Andrew Mude and originally published by The Standard newspaper (Kenya): Insurance only way to guard against weather-gone-awry phenomenon, 28 Apr 2017. Continue reading