Using a combination of short-read sequencing, single-molecule long-read sequencing and Hi-C chromosome conformation capture technologies scientists were able to assemble a chromosome scale genome of elephant grass and found an abundance of information. Continue reading
A new study in Nature Genetics retraced 1,000 years of African pastoralist cattle breeding, identifying how cattle acquired the traits that enabled them to spread throughout the continent NAIROBI, Kenya (30 Sep 2020)— Scientists sifting through the DNA of indigenous African cattle breeds announced today the discovery of a thousand-year-old ‘admixture event’ between the world’s … Continue reading
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
A new paper in the scientific journal Global Sustainability presents some interesting findings on the rise over the past 20 years in social movements around sustainability management. Jules Pretty, professor of environment and society at the Unversity of Essex, UK, is the lead author; ILRI’s Africa RISING project coordinator Peter Thorne is a co-author. Continue reading
Out this week is the first public release of a huge dataset generated by recent surveys of more than 13,000 households in 21 countries using RHoMIS, a novel tool that makes household surveys efficient, robust and comparable. Continue reading
A baker’s dozen of our favourite communications in 2019 are listed and linked to below, in case you missed them. Continue reading
This month, in a new issue of the science journal Animal Frontiers, ILRI scientist Padmakumar Varijakshapanicker leads authorship of a paper on Sustainable livestock systems to improve human health, nutrition, and economic status. Continue reading
Just in time to add fuel to the fire of the current meat, milk and diet wars being waged in scholarly and lay media alike comes the latest issue (Oct 2019) of the scientific journal ‘Animal Frontiers’ on ‘Foods of animal origin: A prescription for global health’, with the term ‘health’, here, covering both human and environmental health. What it offers is a clear-headed, evidenced based, balanced look at the facts as we know them, and the facts that we need. Continue reading
Scientists from ILRI, UK, US, Australia and Tanzania have been working together since 2016 to test an experimental vaccine for malignant catarrhal fever (MCF). They tested an attenuated vaccine strain of MCF (AlHV-1 C500) at ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station. Continue reading
The especially rich and clearly written results of a livestock-gender-nutrition study in Tanzania deserve wide attention. Continue reading
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