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: East Africa
ILRI Impact at Scale program shares insights on scaling tools and practices with CGIAR science leaders and GIZ scaling experts
This post was written by Murat Sartas and Saba Ermyas, and edited by Paul Karaimu. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Impact at Scale (I@S) program recently share examples for identifying, analysing and integrating scaling tools into agricultural research for development programs. At an October 2020 scaling webinar for the science leaders community, which was co-organised by GIZ Task Force on Scaling and CGIAR Science … 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
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
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
Chicken intervention in Ethiopian households improved the nutrition and growth of young children
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’
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
Grass roots vaccination campaigns support rabies eradication in Kenya
Significant challenges exist in sub-Saharan Africa where vaccination efforts and large-scale campaigns, which focus on rural areas, often have mixed results. In Kenya, the National Rabies Elimination Coordination Committee oversees efforts to eliminate dog-mediated rabies. It is coordinated by the Zoonotic Disease Unit (ZDU) and the ministries of health, and agriculture livestock and fisheries. Continue reading
ILRI’s ‘Azizi’ facility is storing samples of livestock and wildlife biodiversity for future research
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) stores biological samples from a diversity of species, which provide an immense genetic library for research in zoonosis, genetics, reproductive technology and breed preservation. Continue reading
Woman veterinarian pioneers public-private partnership to improve veterinary service delivery in Ethiopia
To ensure better and rationalized veterinary service delivery that addresses local needs, the Health of Ethiopian Animals for Rural Development (HEARD) project has established public-private partnership task forces in Ethiopia’s Amhara, Oromia and Somali regions. Continue reading