News

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...

ILRI News
ILRI News

Investigating pathogens in wildlife in Kenya to tackle neglected zoonoses

Wild animals harbour many pathogens that can infect livestock and people. Because of this, epidemiological studies on these pathogens should include wildlife sampling to generate data on their distribution patterns in natural ecologies. This has been the overriding interest under the Co-infection...

ILRI News
ILRI News

Co-infection project updates partners on progress

The three-year International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)- led ‘Co-infection with Rift Valley fever virus, Brucella spp. and Coxiella burnetii in humans and animals in Kenya: Disease burden and ecological factors’ project recently reviewed its activities at a two-day partners and...

ILRI News
ILRI News

Co-infection project’s seroprevalence study helps Isiolo County take first steps towards tackling zoonoses

Zoonotic diseases—diseases that jump from animals to humans such as Rift Valley fever (RVF), brucellosis and Q fever—impose substantial human health effects ranging from chronic malaise to fever and joint pain. In animals, they can reduce livestock productivity, increase mortality and downgrade the...

ILRI News
ILRI News

Building biosafety and biosecurity capacity in northern Kenya to respond to biological threats

A five-day intensive biosafety and biosecurity training was organized for Isiolo and Marsabit counties in Kenya by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) -led project ‘ Co-infection with Rift Valley fever virus, Brucella spp. and Coxiella burnetii in humans and animals in Kenya:...

New science
ILRI News

New study sheds light on the Brucella species circulating in Kenya

Research has revealed that B. abortus and B. melitensis are the dominant Brucella species circulating in several livestock hosts and humans in Kenya. Both B. abortus and B. melitensis were detected in cattle, sheep, goats, camels and humans. Brucellosis is a disease caused by a group of bacteria...

ILRI News

Tackling co-infections with Rift Valley fever, brucellosis and Q fever in Kenya using One Health

Livestock market in Wajir County, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Riccardo Gangale). A second technical meeting of a project that is working to reduce the burden of major zoonoses among pastoralists in Kenya was held 1–4 November 2020 in Naivasha-Kenya. The project, which is known as ‘Co-infection with...

ILRI News

Improving animal health in southern Africa—Why it matters and what to do

Cattle being herded towards green pasture on the flood plain in western Zambia (photo credit: WorldFish/Felix Clay/Duckrabbit). In a new book chapter (Ch. 15, Technologies for agricultural transformation: Animal health ), Delia Grace , a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert at the...

ILRI clippings

Scientists stress need, amid COVID-19, to maintain focus on everyday zoonotic diseases of the world’s poor

James Akoko, ILRI Animal Health Assistant with the People, Animals and their Zoonoses (PAZ) project, making blood smears (photo credit: BMGF/Lee Klejtnot). Most diseases that transmit from animals to humans (zoonoses) are not of the headline-grabbing, world-stopping variety write Eric Fèvre and...

AgHealth blog

New study identifies factors affecting spread of brucellosis in humans and livestock in northeastern Kenya

Brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease that affects wildlife and livestock. People may get exposed to the disease through direct contact with an infected animal or consumption of raw or undercooked animal products. In humans, the disease is characterized by prolonged fever, body aches, joint...

ILRI News

#OneHealthDay is this Sunday: Join ILRI in collaborative work for healthier people, animals and lands

A Fulani boy in Niger herds his family’s animals (photo credit:ILRI/Stevie Mann) Written by Ekta Patel & Susan MacMillan One Health is the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally and globally, to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment. —...

ILRI News

Workshop inaugurates surveillance project on human and animal diseases in Kenya

A variety of zoonotic diseases afflict Kenyan livestock and the people who raise them. Using a modified prioritization tool developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, experts in human and animal health in 2015 identified five priority zoonotic diseases in Kenya: anthrax,...