News Archive

ILRI clippings

‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?

A dead monkey sold as bushmeat hangs outside a villager’s house in north-east Gabon. Photograph: Christine Nesbitt/AP An article in The Guardian newspaper raises the question of whether human destruction of nature is responsible for mass pandemics like COVID-19. It quotes Eric Fevre , a principal...

ILRI clippings

Vaccines against this year’s novel (and world-changing) coronavirus are already in development and being tested—Good news from Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty

Positive news! While some COVID-19 surges are now ‘baked-in’, and we must prepare ourselves for more sickness and deaths, the viral curves should flatten with appropriate measures now being introduced in many countries, and several different vaccines are being developed and already being tested,...

ILRI News

Viral flash points? Poor urban settlements are highly vulnerable to the risk of the new coronavirus

Scene in Nairobi’s low-income Kibera settlement (photo credit: David Orgel/Flickr). A new guest blog article published yesterday (27 Feb 2020) on the website of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) argues that: Weak infrastructure would leave urban settlements in low-...

ILRI News

New Tick Cell Biobank Outpost at ILRI to support research in Africa on ticks and tick-borne diseases

Ticks in ILRI’s tick laboratory (photo credit: ILRI/David White). The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has been selected as Africa’s Outpost for tick cell lines to serve as a resource for global arthropod research in the continent. ILRI’s Tick Unit has been selected as Africa’s...

ILRI News

Minimizing the risks of Rift Valley fever in Uganda – BuildUganda project to build national​ surveillance and response capacities

Livestock waiting to drink at a traditional deep well source at Garba Tulla, Isolo, Kenya (Photo Credit: ILRI/Fiona Flintan) Written by Ekta Patel and Kristina Roesel In early June this year, the BuildUganda research for development project was launched at a workshop with stakeholders . One of the...

AgHealth blog

New study finds that urban wildlife may be a significant vector for antimicrobial resistant bacteria

Researchers entering sampling data (photo credit: Zoonoses and Emerging Diseases). In the cities of developing nations, where unregulated antibiotic use is common and livestock jostle with people amid often unsanitary conditions, scientists have found a potentially troubling vector for the...

ILRI clippings

Scottish gene-edited chickens produced to help stop bird flu

Gallo, 1977, by Aldemir Martins (via Wikiart). ‘Humans don’t usually get the flu directly from animals, but human outbreaks of bird and swine flu can and do happen. In fact, scientists are so concerned that the next great pandemic will arise from a deadly strain of wild bird influenza that they’ve...

ILRI News

Reducing use of antimicrobial drugs in livestock in low-income countries: Two scientists reflect on options

Graphic by Peter Hermes Furian / Shutterstock. Delia Grace Randolph, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert who co-leads the Animal and Human Health program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Kenya, was interviewed recently by Wilton Park, a non-profit...

ILRI clippings

Checking the facts behind the ‘livestock facts’ we think we know

A new look at the facts behind the ‘livestock facts’ we think we know https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

ILRI News

On the need for expanding sustainability frameworks and veterinary vision in developing countries

Divine bovine, painting by Karen Bezuidenhout. A new science paper argues for broadening traditional approaches to livestock sustainability and veterinary vision in developing countries. Two of the three livestock science authors—Brian Perry and Tim Robinson—have formerly worked at the...

ILRI Asia blog

Thai’s Prince Mahidol Award Conference addresses emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance

Making the world safe from the threats of zoonotic diseases and ensuring effective management of antibiotics requires a well-coordinated multisectoral effort. This was one of the key messages coming out of this year’s Prince Mahidol Award Conference ( PMAC 2018 ), a global public health platform...

ILRI clippings

ILRI and Farm Ink ‘Facebook project’ to track livestock diseases in Kenya among five winners of research grants

ILRI animal geneticist and program leader Steve Kemp (left) and Farm Inks’s Georgia Barrie and Adam Wills (left) stand with other winners of research grants provided by the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture. The CGIAR Platform on Big Data in Agriculture has awarded five research proposals...