Taking Stock: Jul 2012 round-up of news from ILRI

JEFF HASKINS Last month, we at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and within CGIAR and the wider agricultural development communities grieved over the sudden loss of American media guru Jeff Haskins, who had spent six years in Africa covering … Continue reading

New ILRI study maps hotspots of human-animal infectious diseases and emerging disease outbreaks

Map by ILRI, published in an ILRI report to DFID: Mapping of Poverty and Likely Zoonoses Hotspots, 2012. A new study maps hotspots of human-animal infectious diseases and emerging disease outbreaks. The maps reveal animal-borne disease as a heavy burden … Continue reading

Amid soaring meat costs, officials from East Africa and Middle East seek plan to keep animal diseases from disrupting livestock trade

New approach to Rift Valley fever outbreaks aims to ensure food safety as region boosts livestock imports from Africa (photo credit: ILRI/Dolan) With increased trade in livestock products offering a possible antidote to high food prices, livestock experts from the … Continue reading

Punctuated equilibrium: Pastoralist timelines of past and future

On the last day (23 March 2011) of a ‘Future of Pastoralism in Africa’ Conference, organized by the Future Agricultures Consortium and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University and held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the International Livestock Research … Continue reading

Adapting agriculture to improve human health–new ILRI policy brief

A child with sleeping sickness undergoes lengthy recovery treatment at a sleeping sickness clinic in Soroti, Uganda (photo credit: ILRI). John McDermott, a Canadian deputy director general for research at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and a veterinary epidemiologist … Continue reading

Livestock boom risks aggravating animal ‘plagues,’ poses growing threat to food security and health of world’s poor

Research released at conference calls for thinking through the health impacts of agricultural intensification to control epidemics that are decimating herds and endangering humans (Picture credit: ILRI/Mann). Increasing numbers of domestic livestock and more resource-intensive production methods are encouraging animal … Continue reading

Assessing animal diseases: New paper urges use of value chain analysis and information economics to understand animal disease impacts

Cows standing in the compound after grazing in Chokwe, Mozambique. A new study calls for improved integration between epidemiology and economics to understand economic and poverty impacts of animal diseases (photo credit: ILRI/Mann) A new study by researchers working with the … Continue reading

Edinburgh-Wellcome-ILRI project addresses neglected zoonotic diseases in western Kenya

‘Neglected diseases are diseases of neglected peoples’—Eric Fèvre Animals and people live close together throughout the developing world. Chickens, goats, pigs, cows and other farmed animals range freely in and out of rural homesteads as families go about their daily … Continue reading

US$4.4 million awarded for research to build a climate model able to predict outbreaks of infectious disease in Africa

Scientists at the University of Liverpool, in the UK, and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Kenya, are working with 11 other African and European partners on a US$4.4-million (UK£3 million-) project to develop climate-based models that will help … Continue reading

New threats, new thinking at the animal-human disease interface

To get serious about controlling emerging human disease, we're going to have to get serious about understanding and controlling their origin in animal disease, often in developing countries   As the world's governments raced to deal with a looming flu … Continue reading