Researchers strengthen their partnerships in the fight against Rift Valley fever

A mixed crop-livestock farm in Western Kenya. Livestock researchers are working towards joint efforts of preventing and controlling Rift Valley fever in eastern Africa (photo credit: ILRI/Charlie Pye-Smith). A new effort to align the work of partners in eastern Africa … Continue reading

Tool for assessing risks to Rift Valley fever outbreaks in the Horn of Africa published

A young boy herds a flock of goats on the road to Wajir from Garissa in northeastern Kenya, an area that has experienced outbreaks of Rift Valley fever, which kills both livestock and people (photo by IRIN). Rift Valley fever … Continue reading

Traditional knowledge key to managing outbreaks of Rift Valley fever: Study points out important role livestock keepers play in veterinary surveillance

Orma Boran cattle crossing a river in Kenya. Cattle and people both can be infected with Rift Valley fever (Photo credit: R Dolan) Livestock researchers say the traditional knowledge of local pastoralists in East Africa needs to be included in … Continue reading

Assessing the full costs of livestock disease: The case of the 2007 outbreak of Rift Valley fever in Kenya

Livestock market in Garissa, in northeastern Kenya. Closure of the cattle market and disruption of cross-border cattle trade with Somalia due to outbreaks of livestock disease can worsen food insecurity among the pastoralists and agropastoralists on both sides of the … Continue reading

New outbreak of fatal Rift Valley fever in the Horn of Africa

Rift Valley fever is a viral disease of people and ruminant animals transmitted by mosquitoes. Epidemics frequently present as extensive abortion storms in small ruminants and cattle combined with heavy mortality in young animals. In people, the disease is most … Continue reading

ILRI deputy director-general of research at World Bank summit makes (serious, sane, realistic) case for West African pastoralism

Livestock herding in Niger (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Two major recent World Bank agricultural summits in Mauritania and Senegal recently urged African countries and communities in the Sahel and the international development community to help protect and expand pastoralism on … Continue reading

Scissors and crazy glue: Lorne Babiuk, award-winning vaccine evangelist, speaks his (clear) mind in Ottawa

Director of ILRI’s vaccine development program Vish Nene (left) with Canadian vaccinologist and ILRI board member Lorne Babiuk (right) at morning tea with ILRI staff (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). Canadian Lorne Babiuk, an internationally recognized leader in vaccine research, visited … Continue reading

Animal-to-human diseases: From panic to planning–new recommendations for policymakers

Map by ILRI, published in an ILRI report to the UK Department for International Development (DFID): Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots, 2012. The UK’s Institute for Development Studies (IDS) has published a 4-page Rapid Response Briefing titled ’Zoonoses: … Continue reading

Zoonoses: The lethal gifts of livestock–Part 3 of ILRI ‘livestock live talk’ by Delia Grace

Zoonoses: The lethal gifts of livestock from ILRI View this ILRI slide presentation, which is a ‘slidecast’ that includes an audio file of a ‘livestock live talk’ given by veterinary epidemiologist Delia Grace at ILRI’s Nairobi headquarters on 31 Oct … Continue reading

Mapping the perfect storms: Where poverty, livestock and disease meet in terrible triage

The following remarks are a transcript of the second part of a presentation made last week by Delia Grace, who works at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi. Grace, a Irish veterinary epidemiologist, leads ILRI’s research on food safety in informal markets … Continue reading