‘A vaccine is coming—the question is how soon’
Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Article / Australia / Communications / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Human Health / Livestock / Policy / Presentation / Vaccines / Zoonotic Diseases

‘A vaccine is coming—the question is how soon’

Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty addressed the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) at its latest Town Hall meeting  Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine and ILRI patron Peter Doherty discussed vaccines, herd immunity, and policy responses to COVID-19 with Director General Jimmy Smith at ILRI’s weekly digital town hall meeting on 29 May 2020. … Continue reading

The good and not-so-good news about the state of COVID-19 vaccine development: A primer from ILRI
Agri-Health / AHH / Biotechnology / COVID19 / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Human Health / ILRI / Presentation / Research / Spotlight / Vaccines / Zoonotic Diseases

The good and not-so-good news about the state of COVID-19 vaccine development: A primer from ILRI

Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), holds a weekly town hall for the 600-plus staff of the institute as well as staff from many of ILRI partners who are hosted on ILRI campuses in Nairobi, Addis Ababa and elsewhere. In the town hall last week, Vish Nene, co-leader of ILRI’s Animal and Human Health program, made a short presentation on the latest developments in COVID-19 vaccine work. Excerpts and slides from his virtual presentation follow. Continue reading

Livestock story-telling at ILRI—Part 2: Ekta Patel, Maasai ‘Fly Girl’
Communications / Event Report / ILRI / ILRIComms / Presentation / Spotlight / Staff / Vaccines

Livestock story-telling at ILRI—Part 2: Ekta Patel, Maasai ‘Fly Girl’

My name is Ekta Patel. I’m communications manager for ILRI’s Bioscience Directorate. I’m an unusual species. I come from an Indian background, but while most Indians in East Africa go into business, I had a passion for molecular biology and became a scientist. Continue reading

Livestock story-telling at ILRI—Part 1: Introduction, ‘Descending into the particular’
Communications / Event Report / ILRI / ILRIComms / Presentation / Spotlight / Staff

Livestock story-telling at ILRI—Part 1: Introduction, ‘Descending into the particular’

The 2019 institutional program meeting of ILRI tried out something new. Nine staff members were asked to present to the 200 hundred or so ILRI staff attending the meeting a short, personal story about how they were helping ILRI to achieve one of its five ‘critical success factors’. Continue reading

Happy New Year! Here’s a baker’s dozen of ILRI’s top livestock communications in 2019
Article / Award / CGIAR / Communications / Event Report / Film and Video / ILRI / ILRIComms / Interview / Knowledge and Information / Launch / News clipping / Opinion Piece / Photofilm / Presentation / Pro-Poor Livestock / Science paper / Spotlight / Staff

Happy New Year! Here’s a baker’s dozen of ILRI’s top livestock communications in 2019

A baker’s dozen of our favourite communications in 2019 are listed and linked to below, in case you missed them. Continue reading

Enhancing food security through sustainable livestock systems
Advocacy / Agriculture / GLAD / ILRI / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Policy / Presentation / Pro-Poor Livestock

Enhancing food security through sustainable livestock systems

Iain Wright, deputy director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), gave the keynote presentation at a side event on enhancing food security through innovation in sustainable livestock systems at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) conference held in Rome last week. Continue reading

ILRI Board Chair Lindsay Falvey, 2019 Crawford Fund Medal awardee, calls on ‘NextGen’ researchers to complete the battle against hunger among the world’s poor
Advocacy / Agriculture / Australia / Award / CGIAR / Consumption / Directorate / Event Report / Food Security / ILRI / Nutrition / Policy / Presentation / Pro-Poor Livestock / Spotlight

ILRI Board Chair Lindsay Falvey, 2019 Crawford Fund Medal awardee, calls on ‘NextGen’ researchers to complete the battle against hunger among the world’s poor

Lindsay Falvey, chair of the board of trustees of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), yesterday received the Crawford Fund Medal at a special World Food Day event held on 16 Oct 2019. Falvey then delivered a public lecture on the role of the next generation of scientists in finding solutions to global challenges. Continue reading

ILRI’s Jimmy Smith on farm animal diversity for more sustainable and resilient global food systems
Animal Breeding / Animal Feeding / Biodiversity / Breeds / Climate Change / Event Report / Forages / Genetics / Geodata / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKCRP / Presentation / Pro-Poor Livestock / Resilience / Spotlight

ILRI’s Jimmy Smith on farm animal diversity for more sustainable and resilient global food systems

Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), this week made a short presentation at the annual meeting of the Food Forever Initiative held in Wilmington, Delaware, 23–24 Sep 2018. Food Forever is a global partnership to raise awareness on the importance and urgency of conserving and using agricultural biodiversity. Smith is one of 30 Food Forever champions advocating this important cause. Smith spoke on the central importance of better conserving, characterizing and using the world’s remaining livestock diversity to ensure future food security in the face of climate and other changes. Continue reading

Livestock-enhanced diets in the first 1,000 days of life: Pathways to better futures in low-income countries
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Livestock-enhanced diets in the first 1,000 days of life: Pathways to better futures in low-income countries

A new report was published this month on the value of ensuring consumption of meat, milk and eggs by infants up to two years of age and by expectant and new mothers in developing countries (the first 1,000 days). The report was published by ILRI and the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security. Highlights of the findings of this joint ILRI-Chatham livestock study were presented at a side event at the EAT Stockholm Food Forum on 11 Jun 2018. Continue reading

‘Living tools’ at the frontier of vaccine development—A Keystone Symposium workshop by Vish Nene
Africa / AHH / Biotechnology / CBPP / Disease Control / Genetics / Human Health / ILRI / ILVAC / Presentation / Research / Spotlight / Vaccines

‘Living tools’ at the frontier of vaccine development—A Keystone Symposium workshop by Vish Nene

Vish Nene, one of the scientific organizers of the conference and a co-leader of the Animal and Human Health program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, gave a particularly lucid talk at the pre-meeting workshop on Novel tools and genomics approaches supporting vaccine development. The following is a transcript of Nene’s talk, lightly edited for clarity and brevity. Continue reading