In November 2020, Zuleka Ismail joined the One Health for Humans, Environment, Animals and Livelihoods (HEAL) Project as interim regional manager. Zuleka brings more than seven years of experience in managing and monitoring public health and veterinary programs in pastoralist systems to the table. She sat down with Saba Ermyas, communication officer at the International … Continue reading
Category Archives: Animal Diseases
Excursions of a biochemical kind: ILRI hosts CUNY–Regeneron ‘power couple’ working to improve the health of African cattle and COVID-19 patients
Jayne Raper, professor in the department of biological sciences at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY) and her husband Neil Stahl, vice president of Regeneron visit ILRI and share thoughts on trypanosomiasis and COVID-19. Continue reading
Training researchers virtually when supplies can cross borders but people cannot
The Epidemiology and Control of peste des petits ruminants (ECo-PPR) project team designed 5-10-minute videos for 10 tools with built in activities and resources to support the training of veterinarians, socio-economists and lab technicians in West Africa and East Africa. 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
ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station commits to preserving biodiversity and conserving wildlife through its wildlife corridor
ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station has been registered as a Kenyan national wildlife conservancy. Its land will help conserve wildlife that can now move between the corridors in the Nairobi National Park and the Athi-Kapiti plains. Continue reading
New One Health centre in Africa announces advisory committee members
The ILRI-led One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa (OHRECA) has an advisory committee of 10 members who include scientists and policymakers from Africa, Europe and North America. They will guide OHRECA in implementing its work in Africa. Continue reading
USAID-funded Regional Feed the Future Animal Health Innovation Lab to be based in Nairobi, Kenya
The Feed the Future Animal Health Innovation Lab will identify interventions to reduce livestock diseases, particularly the deadly cattle disease known as East Coast fever (ECF) and further develop local capacity in animal health through research training and institutional development. Continue reading
Improving animal health in southern Africa—Why it matters and what to do
In a new book chapter, Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Natural Resources Institute, of the University of Greenwich, in the UK, says animal diseases are a threat not only to the livestock sector of southern Africa, but also to its economy (via reduced benefits from the region’s wildlife resources), and also to human health in the region. Continue reading
Global action needed to fight the spread of African swine fever
African swine fever, an infectious viral disease of domestic and wild pigs, has spread to nearly 51 countries across the globe and continues to wreak havoc with countries facing significant socio-economic losses in the current situation. The disease, which is caused by African swine fever virus, causes hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in domestic … Continue reading
Laughter, the universal language
I’m a gender researcher working on a project to control peste des petits ruminants (PPR). I have wondered what our international agricultural research would be like if we researchers and the farmers/herders we work with and for could all understand each other perfectly. Continue reading