Among short presentations made to Sir Mark Walport, the UK chief scientific adviser, on his 15 Jul 2015 tour of the biosciences laboratories at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, was one by Joerg Jores, a molecular biologist working to better control important livestock diseases of Africa and other developing regions. Jores is a senior scientist in ILRI’s Vaccine Biosciences program whose work supports the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish. Continue reading
Category Archives: Human Health
Human Health
UK chief scientific adviser visits Kenya: Part 3—The dual rise of the global livestock sector and antimicrobial resistance
The second of two scientists to make a short presentation to Sir Mark Walport, the UK chief scientific adviser, on his 15 Jul 2015 visit to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, was Tim Robinson, a livestock and spatial analysis expert. Continue reading
UK chief scientific adviser visits Kenya: Part 2—’One Health’ surveillance of infectious livestock-to-human diseases
The first scientist of two scientists to make a short presentation to Sir Mark Walport, the UK chief scientific adviser, on his 15 Jul 2015 visit to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, was Eric Fèvre, a veterinary epidemiologist and joint appointee at ILRI and the Institute of Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool. Fèvre manages several field-oriented research projects on neglected zoonoses on behalf of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. Continue reading
Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century–The Lancet
The 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change was been formed to map out the impacts of climate change and the necessary policy responses. The central finding from the Commission’s work is that tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century. One of the authors of the paper is ILRI veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Continue reading
The rise of antimicrobial resistance (lethal) and animal agriculture (critical): Their links in developing countries
This Jun 2015, Evidence on Demand, an international development information hub supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), published a 44-page paper identifying key evidence gaps in our knowledge of livestock- and fisheries-linked antimicrobial resistance in the developing world and documenting on-going and planned research on this topic by key stakeholders.The paper, written by veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), is titled: Review of evidence on antimicrobial resistance and animal agriculture in developing countries. Continue reading
It’s simple (everybody eats); It’s complicated (everybody eats differently)
The inestimable Tara Garnett, of the Food Climate Research Network, offers much new food for thought on ‘the meat question’ in a new discussion paper on What is a sustainable healthy diet? and a new think piece, Gut feelings and possible tomorrows: (where) does animal farming fit? Continue reading
Food scares: Agrifood systems everywhere need greater cooperation and investments in safer foods and farming
An interesting, if scary, read is chapter 6 of the recently launched flagship report of IFPRI on reducing and managing food scares, co-written by Delia Grace at ILRI and John McDermott, who directs the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, led by IFPRI. Continue reading
Managing the most nutritious, and riskiest, foods in the informal markets of developing countries
A new book compiling 25 contemporary studies on food safety in Africa’s informal markets offers (surprising) lessons for much of the developing world. Continue reading
First global map of the rising use of antimicrobial drugs in farm animals published in PNAS
As reported last week in a scientific paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals, worldwide antimicrobial consumption is expected to rise by a staggering 67% between 2010 and 2030. Continue reading
Fighting fire with fire: New study shows co-parasitic infections of cattle protect the animals from lethal disease
A Boran calf and girl in eastern Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). A new study of the cattle killer East Coast fever finds a protective process that may also be at work in human malaria: Infections with milder parasites may protect against severe disease. African cattle infected with a lethal parasite that kills one million … Continue reading