Category Archives: Species

Kenya’s native goats and sheep, expertly crossbred, are key to helping farmers cope with climate change
Agriculture / Animal Breeding / Animal Production / Article / Breeds / CCAFS / Climate Change / East Africa / Genetics / Goats / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / LiveGene / Livestock / Sheep / Small Ruminants

Kenya’s native goats and sheep, expertly crossbred, are key to helping farmers cope with climate change

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Smallholder farmers and pastoral herders in East Africa are the target of an ongoing joint project of ILRI, the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Continue reading →

New project promises more productive chickens for Africa’s smallholders
ACGG / Africa / Agriculture / Breeds / Chickens / Ethiopia / Farming Systems / Genetics / Indigenous Breeds / Launch / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKFISH / Nigeria / Project / Spotlight / Tanzania

New project promises more productive chickens for Africa’s smallholders

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A new four-year African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will run from 2015 to 2019 and work to genetically improve Africa’s chickens and to better deliver the superior chickens to small-scale farmers. Continue reading →

Chickens rule — Everywhere — Everyday — Every way
ACGG / Animal Breeding / Article / Chickens / Consumption / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Intensification / LiveGene / Poultry / Spotlight

Chickens rule — Everywhere — Everyday — Every way

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When, exactly, did the chicken move out of our backyards and into our front rooms, taking over our kitchens and imaginations? When did it stop being a bird peasants kept to serve up the occasional egg, and the daily morning crow, and become meat for daily gobbling? Continue reading →

Fighting fire with fire: New study shows co-parasitic infections of cattle protect the animals from lethal disease
Agri-Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Disease Control / East Africa / ECF / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa / Spotlight

Fighting fire with fire: New study shows co-parasitic infections of cattle protect the animals from lethal disease

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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 →

Celebrating the ‘Year of the Goat’ (or ‘Sheep’, or ‘Ram’) today–with one-sixth of the world
Asia / China / Event / Goats / ILRI / Livestock / Sheep / Southeast Asia / Spotlight / Vietnam

Celebrating the ‘Year of the Goat’ (or ‘Sheep’, or ‘Ram’) today–with one-sixth of the world

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On the occasion of Vietnamese lunar New Year 2015, we wish you a New Year of the Goat good health, prosperity and happiness.—Hung Nguyen and the rest of the staff in the Hanoi office of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Continue reading →

Addis Ababa conference marks 40-year anniversary of world’s leading livestock-research-for-development institute
Directorate / Ethiopia / Event / Food Security / Human Health / ILRI / ILRI40 / Livestock / Poultry / Poverty / Pro-Poor Livestock / Spotlight

Addis Ababa conference marks 40-year anniversary of world’s leading livestock-research-for-development institute

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To mark 40 years of international research this year, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has been facilitating a series of events highlighting the ways livestock research advances the global development agenda, specifically for food and nutritional security, economic well-being and healthy lives. This Thursday and Friday (6–7 Nov 2014), ILRI is hosting a two-day high-profile conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where ILRI has a principal campus and has carried out livestock research for development for the last four decades. Continue reading →

New studies on MERS coronavirus and camels in eastern Africa published
Animal Diseases / Article / Camels / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / ILRI / ILRIComms / ILVAC / Kenya / MERS / Middle East / Pastoralism / Spotlight / Zoonotic Diseases

New studies on MERS coronavirus and camels in eastern Africa published

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Two new papers on MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome) coronavirus and camels in Eastern Africa have been published in the science journal ‘Emerging Infectious Diseases’; three of the authors are ILRI scientists. Continue reading →

New map: Benefits of controlling trypanosomosis in the Horn of Africa
Agriculture / Books and Chapters / Cattle / Disease Control / East Africa / Ethiopia / Geodata / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / Knowledge and Information / SLS / Somalia / South Sudan / Spotlight / Sudan / Trypanosomiasis / Zoonotic Diseases

New map: Benefits of controlling trypanosomosis in the Horn of Africa

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Using the Horn of Africa as an example, the maps illustrate different steps in a methodology developed to estimate and map the economic benefits to livestock keepers of controlling a disease (Shaw et al. 2014). Cattle are first assigned to different production systems as shown in Map 1, illustrating for example, where mixed farming is heavily dependent on the use of draft oxen in Ethiopia, areas of Sudan and South Sudan where oxen use is much lower, and the strictly pastoral areas of Somalia and Kenya. Continue reading →

Deadly strain of bird flu in China linked to live poultry markets; high-risk spots in Asia mapped–New study
A4NH / Agri-Health / Article / Asia / Bangladesh / Bird flu / CCAFS / China / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Geodata / Human Health / HUMIDTROPICS / ILRI / India / Indonesia / Philippines / Poultry / SLS / Spotlight / Vietnam / Zoonotic Diseases

Deadly strain of bird flu in China linked to live poultry markets; high-risk spots in Asia mapped–New study

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A new study reveals conditions linked to the emergence and spread of deadly bird flu and maps the areas of Asia at greatest risk of the spread of the new virus strain. A dangerous strain of avian influenza, H7N9, that’s causing severe illness and deaths in China may be inhabiting a small fraction of its potential range and appears at risk of spreading to other suitable areas of India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature Communications. Continue reading →