Four fellows from the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) CapDev Grand Challenge attended this year’s virtual World Food Prize symposium from 12–16 Oct. The symposium addresses cutting-edge issues in food security and nutrition. Continue reading
Author Archives: David Aronson
Sounding the alarm: The impact of COVID-19 on global food security and nutrition
Jimmy Smith, the director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), spoke on 14 Oct, 2020 about how to prepare for and prevent future pandemics at a Committee on World Food Security (CFS) high-level event. The event, held virtually over three days and in lieu of the traditional annual CFS gathering because of the … Continue reading
Remembering Michael Blümmel
We will miss Michael not only for his scientific contributions but for the calm and caring human being he was. Continue reading
International Livestock Research Institute becomes Global Landscapes Forum charter member
(BONN, 12 October 2020) – Over half a billion people in developing countries depend to some extent on farm animals for their livelihoods. Animal-sourced food also plays an important role in nutrition, through providing readily-available proteins and micronutrients. But animal agriculture is also implicated in global environmental challenges such as deforestation and climate change—and pressing … Continue reading
When numbers lie
Tom Dowling led a team that built a land surface temperature validation site at the ILRI Kapiti Research Station in August 2018. He spoke about some of the lessons he’s learned since then with host Simon Clark on Brilliant, a YouTube science channel. Continue reading
A 1,000-year-old ‘Evolutionary Jolt’ helped African cattle adapt to the continent’s multiple challenges
A new study in Nature Genetics retraced 1,000 years of African pastoralist cattle breeding, identifying how cattle acquired the traits that enabled them to spread throughout the continent NAIROBI, Kenya (30 Sep 2020)— Scientists sifting through the DNA of indigenous African cattle breeds announced today the discovery of a thousand-year-old ‘admixture event’ between the world’s … Continue reading
‘To turn the unknown into the known’: Inside the global effort to bring the fight to viruses
Dennis Carroll, chair of the Global Virome Project Leadership Board, an ambitious global effort to develop a comprehensive database of viruses and detect and track down the planet’s unknown and emerging viral threats, spoke with Jimmy Smith, the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) director general, at the institute’s weekly virtual meeting on 18 Nov 2020. … Continue reading
No laughing matter: Livestock enclosures in Africa are an underestimated source of the greenhouse gas N2O
Emissions from abandoned livestock enclosures haven’t previously been taken into account in estimates for sources of atmospheric nitrous oxide, nor have emissions from abandoned animal pens in other semi-arid areas in the world. Accurate estimates of the sources of GHG are essential in the global effort to combat climate change. Continue reading
Unite human, animal and environmental health to prevent the next pandemic, says ILRI/UN report
The ‘Preventing the next pandemic: zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission,’ report is a joint effort by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and ILRI. Continue reading
‘A vaccine is coming—the question is how soon’
Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty addressed the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at its latest Town Hall meeting Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine and ILRI patron Peter Doherty discussed vaccines, herd immunity, and policy responses to COVID-19 with Director General Jimmy Smith at ILRI’s weekly digital town hall meeting on 29 May 2020. … Continue reading