News

ILRI News

Livestock vaccines are linked to women empowerment in northern Ghana

Healthy and productive small ruminants play a key role in supporting women’s empowerment in low- and middle-income countries. This is because small ruminants (goats and sheep) are more likely to be owned and controlled by women and have been shown to support women's livelihoods, their empowerment...

ILRI News
ILRI News

Harnessing the digital connectivity of pastoralists to close data gaps

Pastoralist communities in northern Kenya are among the most neglected people in the country, suffering the highest levels of food insecurity and poverty. This is partly because the nomadic herding of livestock was until recently considered an outdated and unproductive way of life. But equally...

  • Charlie Pye-Smith
ILRI News

Transforming smallholder dairy cattle for a more sustainable future 

Cattle in Africa usually feed on low-quality tropical roughages, which have low protein and high fibre content. Such meagre fare is hard for the cattle to digest and leads to poor milk yields and high methane emissions: unwelcome news for the farmer and the environment. For the 800 million...

ILRI News

New study on co-infection in Kenyan wildlife enhances understanding of neglected zoonotic diseases

Researchers typically study animal diseases one at a time, but diseases often come in combinations. To better understand how diseases work in their natural environments, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) researchers led by Bernard Bett and James Akoko, together with researchers from...

AgHealth blog

Experts call for cross-sectoral collaboration to tackle disease risks in changing food systems

The rapid transformation of food systems is creating unintentional infectious disease risks that will need to be addressed through effective coordination between agricultural and public health sectors, a new review study says. A food system includes all the aspects of feeding and nourishing people...

ILRI News

Invitation to closing event of the Programme for Climate-Smart Livestock Systems

All are cordially invited to the virtual closing event of the Programme for Climate-Smart Livestock Systems (PCSL), to be held on 13 September 2022 from 14.30-16.30 EAT. PCSL was designed to build the capacity of governments, the private sector, and livestock keepers towards improving livestock...

Mazingira blog

Recent progress and future priorities for greenhouse gas emissions from livestock in Africa

Ruminant livestock are essential for livelihoods of millions of people in Africa. However, African livestock systems are threatened by climate change due to increased heat stress and reduced feed for animals, among others. At the same time, livestock also contribute to climate change and are the...

  • Mike Graham
ILRI News
ILRI News

Burundi steps up surveillance and response efforts to control Rift Valley fever

Burundi has stepped up efforts to prevent and control Rift valley fever, which was first reported in the country this April. With support from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)-led One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa and Regional Integrated Agricultural...

ILRI News
ILRI News

One Health Centre in Africa supports Burundi’s response to Rift Valley fever

On 10 April 2022, Burundi reported its first Rift Valley fever (RVF) outbreak and notified the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) of the outbreak on 3 June 2022. The disease was first detected in Muyinga, Ngozi and Kirundo provinces in the northeast of the country and gradually spread...

ILRI Asia

Exploring measures to curb the spread of African swine fever in northeast India

Experts in India met in a recent regional workshop to design a comprehensive African swine fever (ASF) management plan in response to the negative impacts of the disease on the livelihoods of millions of farmers in the northeast of the country. Held on 8 July in Assam, the workshop was co-hosted by...

Impact
ILRI News

Vaccinating household chicken flocks improves nutrition of young children in rural Kenya, leading to better growth

Interventions to relieve animal losses due to infectious disease translate into increased consumption of protein-rich diets by boys and girls—and ultimately into improved growth outcomes for both. This outcome may seem logical but for various reasons has been exceptionally hard to test. Now, it has...

ILRI News

Hybrid extension approach promotes adoption of high-quality forages in Uganda

According to the Uganda’s Dairy Development Authority, annual milk production in the country increased from 2.08 to 2.5 billion litres between 2015 and 2017/18 . But further improvement in milk productivity since then has been hampered by inconsistent supply of nutritious forages between the wet...