Category Archives: ILRI

‘To turn the unknown into the known’: Inside the global effort to bring the fight to viruses
Agri-Health / COVID19 / Directorate / Disease Control / Human Health / ILRI / OneHealth / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

‘To turn the unknown into the known’: Inside the global effort to bring the fight to viruses

Posted on by • Leave a comment

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
Agriculture / Environment / GHG Emissions / Livestock / Livestock Systems / LIVESTOCKCRP / Mazingira

No laughing matter: Livestock enclosures in Africa are an underestimated source of the greenhouse gas N2O

Posted on by • Leave a comment

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 →

USAID-funded Regional Feed the Future Animal Health Innovation Lab to be based in Nairobi, Kenya
Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / ECF / ILRI / Livestock / LIVESTOCKCRP

USAID-funded Regional Feed the Future Animal Health Innovation Lab to be based in Nairobi, Kenya

Posted on by • Leave a comment

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 →

Chicken intervention in Ethiopian households improved the nutrition and growth of young children
ACGG / Agri-Health / Chickens / Consumption / Diet / Disease Control / East Africa / Ethiopia / Gender / Human Health / ILRI / Nutrition / Pro-Poor Livestock / Science paper / Spotlight / Women

Chicken intervention in Ethiopian households improved the nutrition and growth of young children

Posted on by • Leave a comment

ILRI animal geneticist/breeder Tadelle Dessie is one of many authors of a new paper in the Journal of Nutrition that is based on an intervention made by the African Chicken Genetic Gains project in Ethiopia, led by Dessie. Among the main findings of the paper are that a chicken production intervention with or without nutrition-sensitive behavior change communication may have benefited child nutrition and did not increase morbidity. Continue reading →

New alliance for better dairy animal nutrition in Kenya will work to advance ‘human nutrition, success and progress’
Animal Feeding / Cattle / Consumption / Dairying / East Africa / Feed Technology / Feeds / FFD / Forages / Gender / ILRI / Kenya / Launch / Pro-Poor Livestock / Project / Spotlight / Women

New alliance for better dairy animal nutrition in Kenya will work to advance ‘human nutrition, success and progress’

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Yesterday (7 Sep 2020), ILRI and four partners—Bidco Land O’Lakes, Corteva Agriscience, Forage Genetics International (FGI) and Land O’Lakes Venture37—announced their new alliance in a project to strengthen dairy production in central Kenya. The project aims to help 5,000 smallholder dairy women to advance their sustainable farming practices and to ease the shortage of dairy products in the country. Continue reading →

The world needs to learn how to live with COVID-19, says UK public health expert David Heymann
Agri-Health / Animal Health / COVID19 / Directorate / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Event Report / Film and Video / Human Health / ILRI / Spotlight / Zoonotic Diseases

The world needs to learn how to live with COVID-19, says UK public health expert David Heymann

Posted on by • Leave a comment

David Heymann, who has worked for more than 20 years with the World Health Organization (WHO), here gives his outlook on the current COVID-19 pandemic at an online weekly ‘Round-up’ meeting of ILRI on 28 Aug 2020. Continue reading →

Improving animal health in southern Africa—Why it matters and what to do
Agri-Health / AHH / Animal Diseases / Bird flu / Books and Chapters / Brucellosis / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Food Safety / OneHealth / PPR / RVF / Southern Africa / Spotlight / Trypanosomiasis / Zoonotic Diseases

Improving animal health in southern Africa—Why it matters and what to do

Posted on by • Leave a comment

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 →

COVID-19 and the brain
A4NH / AHH / COVID19 / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Human Health / ILRI / OneHealth / UK / Zoonotic Diseases

COVID-19 and the brain

Posted on by • Leave a comment

One common COVID-19 complication is altered mental state, which may be the result of encephalitis – swelling of the brain – caused by the virus itself, or by the body’s immune response to the virus. The latest news about the link between COVID-19 and neurological complications can be found by visiting the Brain Infections Global COVID-Neuro website or following Professor Solomon on Twitter @RunningMadProf. Continue reading →

ILRI Forage Genebank supports development of improved forage varieties to increase livestock productivity in Ethiopia
Agriculture / Biodiversity / Ethiopia / Feeds / FFD / Forages / Genebank / Livestock Productivity / Seeds

ILRI Forage Genebank supports development of improved forage varieties to increase livestock productivity in Ethiopia

Posted on by • Leave a comment

The recent release of the CGIAR Genebank Platform 2019 annual report highlights that, for the third year in a row, germplasm distribution to requesters outside of the CGIAR exceeded that to those inside the CGIAR. Ethiopia ranked as one of the top 10 countries receiving germplasm from the CGIAR. Nearly 60% of these, representing a … Continue reading →

ILRI launches new drought index insurance for resilience in the Sahel and Horn of Africa project
Agriculture / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / Environment / Ethiopia / Food Security / IBLI / Insurance / Kenya / Knowledge and Information / Launch / Livestock / Livestock Systems / LIVESTOCKCRP / Pastoralism / Project / Rangelands / Resilience / SLS / Somalia / Sudan / Uganda

ILRI launches new drought index insurance for resilience in the Sahel and Horn of Africa project

Posted on by • Leave a comment

In July, ILRI launched a new Drought Index-insurance for Resilience in the Sahel and Horn of Africa (DIRISHA) project, focusing on pastoral systems in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region. Continue reading →