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
Tag Archives: University of Edinburgh
Appolinaire Djikeng, of BecA-ILRI Hub, appointed director of leading tropical livestock centre
Appolinaire Djikeng has been appointed director of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health, a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and ILRI. Continue reading
Over-diagnosis of the milk-linked brucellosis disease in Kenya found—New study
Thousands of Kenyans are being wrongly diagnosed and treated for the milk linked disease brucellosis, reveals a new study. Now researchers at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and six international institutions, want the responsible test withdrawn from public hospitals. Continue reading
Injection of new genetics funding to boost the health and productivity of Africa’s farm animals
Scientists will use funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to look at how genetic information can improve the health and productivity of farmed animals in tropical climates. The institutions in Scotland and Africa where the researchers are based are also making additional contributions, taking the total funding pot to £20 million over the next five years. Continue reading
Parasites to the rescue: Study suggests dual infections may help control livestock and human infectious diseases
Deaths caused by East Coast fever, the biggest killer of East African cattle, dropped 89 per cent among calves which were also infected with other species of parasite that do not cause disease. Continue reading
All things zoonotic: An ‘Urban Zoo’ research project tracks livestock-based pathogen flows in and around Nairobi
An Urban Zoo research project in Kenya (more formally called ‘Epidemiology, Ecology and Socio‐Economics of Disease Emergence in Nairobi’) is tracking pathogen flows in and around Kenya’s capital city. Continue reading
When two parasites are better than one: (Unusual) insights into ways to combat human parasitic diseases
Portrait of one of Kenya’s Improved Boran breed of cattle (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). ‘Parasites found in African cattle could offer a new insight into ways of combatting serious parasitic diseases in humans, including malaria. A team funded by the Wellcome Trust has found that cows can be protected from parasites that cause deadly diseases … Continue reading
New paper on parasitic infections shows the benefits of co-infections with the ‘mild cousins’ of important pathogens
Herds of African cattle may hold the secret to new ways of fighting parasitic diseases like malaria, which kills some 600,000 people a year, scientists said on Friday. Continue reading
ILRI’s Philip Toye VOA interview on East Coast fever, and the benefits of co-parasitic infections
Voice of America’s Joe DeCapua interview Phil Toye, a scientist with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), about a paper published this week in Science Advance. Continue reading
‘Out of the lab and into the field–with our clients’: Phil Toye on getting the balance in animal health research right
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Phil Toye, an Australian immunologist who leads ILRI’s animal health research on development of diagnostics and vaccines for diseases of farm animals in Africa and other developing regions, reflects on the changes he’s seen at ILRI. Toye first came to ILRI’s … Continue reading