Tag Archives: VOA

No exit strategy: More than 100 Somali’s, mostly young and old, have died of hunger and disease
Article / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Food Security / Nigeria / Somalia / South Sudan / Vulnerability

No exit strategy: More than 100 Somali’s, mostly young and old, have died of hunger and disease

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More than one hundred vulnerable people of the South—most of them old and young—have died from lack of food and water-borne diseases in a 48-hour period in the rural Bay administrative region of southwestern Somalia. This hot and semi-arid southern region is devastated by drought as well as by the operations of a militant Islamist group known as Al-Shabaab. Continue reading →

Slum farming and superbugs—An ‘Urban Zoo’ science project tracks bacterial routes in complex environments
A4NH / Agri-Health / Article / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Food Safety / FSZ / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Zoonotic Diseases

Slum farming and superbugs—An ‘Urban Zoo’ science project tracks bacterial routes in complex environments

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The Urban Zoo project is visiting 99 households across Nairobi, rich and poor, with livestock and without. They’re taking samples from people, their animals, and whatever wildlife they can find nearby (and catch): storks, mice, bats, et cetera. They’re sampling the ground around homes, yards and livestock pens with white paper booties. ‘The aim, says University of Liverpool veterinarian Judy Bettridge, is “to try and understand on a small scale how those bacteria are shared” among each household’s people, livestock and environment. “And then when we scale it up, are the bacteria here being shared with the household that’s 50 meters over there? Or 100 meters over there? So, how far can they actually spread?” . . . Continue reading →

Agri-Health / Animal Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Disease Control / East Africa / ECF / Epidemiology / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa / Staff / Vaccines

New paper on parasitic infections shows the benefits of co-infections with the ‘mild cousins’ of important pathogens

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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 →

Agri-Health / Animal Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Disease Control / East Africa / ECF / Epidemiology / ILRI / Interview / Kenya / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa / Staff / Vaccines

ILRI’s Philip Toye VOA interview on East Coast fever, and the benefits of co-parasitic infections

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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 →

Animal Health / Central Africa / Congo-DR / Disease Control / Goats / ILRI / PPR / Sheep / Small Ruminants

A livestock plague is killing Congo’s goats and sheep

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Goat and people share a road in Goma, DRC (photo on Flickr by Robert Guerra). Voice of America is reporting on a new livestock epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The highly contagious viral disease is known as ‘peste des petits ruminants’, or PPR for short, sometimes as ‘ovine rinderpest’, and more … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

East Africa can–and should–help livestock herders cope better with drought

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Dasanech nomadic homes near Omorate, in southern Ethiopia (photo on Flickr by Carsten ten Brink). Cathy Majtenyi of Voice of America reported on meetings in Nairobi this week to look at options for mitigating drought-induced food shortages. They say pastoralism is the best land-use practice in the region’s drylands and are looking at ways to help … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Climate Change / Directorate / ILRI

How Africa can adapt to climate change – ILRI Director General Carlos Seré interviewed on VOA

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In this short (4 minutes 30 seconds) audio interview, the director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Carlos Seré, speaks on why Africa must, and how it can, adapt to climate change. Listen to the podcast Seré says Africa must learn to adapt to shorter growing seasons following findings of a new ILRI study … Continue reading →

Africa / Climate Change / Crop-Livestock / Directorate / Food Security / ILRI

Could rising temperatures overwhelm Africa’s adaptive capacity and resilience?

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‘A new study warns of the potential problems Africa faces from rising temperatures. ‘The Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) says the continent must learn to adapt to shorter growing seasons. The report was released as the U.N. Climate Change Conference is held in Cancun, Mexico. ‘Most warnings about climate change are based on a … Continue reading →

Africa / Asia / CCAFS / Climate Change / Latin America

Poor countries need more support to adapt to climate change

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Preparing land for sowing seeds in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). ‘A report published Wednesday [17 November 2010] says developed nations are not fulfilling the financial promises they made at a United Nations conference last year aimed at helping poor countries deal with climate change. ‘At a U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen last … Continue reading →