The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has established a One Health Centre in Africa (OHRECA) to enhance the health of people, animals and their shared environment in the continent. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) the centre will develop capacity and support One Health network initiatives across Africa. Continue reading
Category Archives: Wildlife
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
A bridge not too far: To prevent pandemics, close the human and animal health divide
Veterinarians as well as wildlife biologists, livestock farmers, and zookeepers remain a largely untapped resource for combatting diseases that threaten people. Continue reading
Antimicrobial Resistance through the eyes of the journalists in Kenya
In the lead up to the World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2019 (#WAAW2019), which is celebrated every year in November, the CGIAR AMR Hub at the International Livestock research Institute (ILRI) jointly with Kenya’s ministries of Health and Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation hosted, at the ILRI campus in Nairobi, a media sensitization on raising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) … Continue reading
Scientists test an experimental vaccine against malignant catarrhal fever at ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station
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
ILRI’s Kapiti livestock research station—and Kenyan and global public goods—imperiled by land grabs in Kenya
Over the past several weeks, illegal attempts to grab land have escalated at Kapiti Plains Estate (‘Kapiti’, or ‘Kapiti research station’), located about 60 km southeast of Nairobi along Mombasa Road, in Machakos County. Members of groups involved in the illegal sales have started trespassing and building illegal structures on Kapiti research station. No land at Kapiti is for sale. Continue reading
Livestock-wildlife trade-offs for pastoral livelihoods in the conservancies of the Masai Mara
A new research paper, Trade-offs for climate-resilient pastoral livelihoods in wildlife conservancies in the Mara ecosystem, Kenya, was recently published in Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, May 2017. The paper is co-authored by Claire Bedelian, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and University College London (UCL), and Joseph Ogutu, of ILRI and the University of Hohenheim. Continue reading
Fragmentation of the Athi-Kaputiei plains, outside Nairobi, has caused rapid declines in both pastoralism and wildlife
A new paper on the consequences of land fragmentation and fencing on rangelands outside Nairobi, Kenya, formerly rich with wildlife and critical for the functioning of Nairobi’s famed national park, has been published. All of the authors are former staff, and one former partner, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), where this research work was conducted. Continue reading
Kenya’s wildlife populations are in ‘widespread’ and ‘catastrophic’ decline—New study
Here’s a wake up call for all those who care about Kenya’s rich heritage of wild animals, rangelands and pastoral peoples. A new study reporting on the period from 1977 to 2016 says wildlife on the rangelands of Kenya, which still support some of the richest herds of mammals on earth, is in precipitous decline while populations of goats and sheep are increasingly sharply. Continue reading
New paper explodes a ‘breadbasket’ myth: African food production for African people, please
‘Africa could be on the brink of an agricultural revolution. Political commitment to the sector is thankfully gaining momentum as an effective route to bring African populations out of hunger and poverty. But there is also talk that the region’s potential croplands should feed the rest of the world as well, in addition to providing vast quantities of biofuels. However, a new scientific paper released this week suggests African countries should cast global requests aside and instead focus on staple crop production to feed the continent first.’ Continue reading