Pastoralism: Animal health and food safety situation analysis in Kenya and Tanzania

Pastoralism is a farming system practised in arid and semi arid lands by societies that derive most of their food and income from livestock production. About 70% of the land mass in the Horn of Africa is dry land. In Kenya 80% of the land mass is classified as arid and semi-arid while approximately half of Tanzania consists of dry land. These dry lands can only be effectively used for livestock rearing, supporting wildlife resource harvesting and tourism.

The poster below, prepared for the Tropentag 2014 conference, presents findings of a situation analysis of animal health and its implication on food safety in Kenya and Tanzania. The study reports on livestock diseases with high prevalence and their likely effects on food safety and food security in pastoral communities in the two countries. The extent of species rearing diversification, pastoralist trade orientation and practices that may expose the community and their trading partners to animal and zoonotic infections are also explained.

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Pastoralism: Animal health and food safety situation analysis, Kenya and Tanzania

This week, ILRI staff are participating in the Tropentag 2014 International Conference in Prague, Czech Republic (17-19 September 2014). There is also a dedicated ILRI@40 side event on livestock-based options for sustainable food and nutritional security and healthy lives.  See all the posters.

 

New studies on MERS coronavirus and camels in eastern Africa published

ILRI news

Part of a large camel herd in northern Kenya; on the outskirts of Marsabit and Moyale, the average distances to watering points run into dozens of kilometres (photo credit: Ann Weru/IRIN).

Written by Dan Klotz

Two new papers on MERS coronavirus and camels in Eastern Africa have been published in the science journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Summary points

• Studies find that camels in Egypt, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan have antibodies to the coronavirus that causes MERS.
• The first study indicates that young camels are at greater risk of harbouring the virus than older camels.
• We do not know if the infections in East African camels have led to, or could lead to, disease in people; this possibility should be investigated.
• We do not know if or how much the East African camel virus is related to the one infecting camels and people in the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt; this possibility…

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Arguing the case for massive investments in One Health

Emerging and neglected zoonoses have often been managed sectorally, but recent decades have shown, in case after case, the benefits of One Health management.

The growing body of evidence suggests the time has come to make the bigger case for massive investment in One Health to transform the management of neglected and emerging zoonoses, annually saving the lives of millions of people as well as hundreds of millions of animals whose production supports and nourishes billions of impoverished people.

Delia Grace, a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) sets out a ‘Big 5’ framework for One Health:

1. Join up health resources: Share health resources across human and veterinary sectors
2. Control zoonoses in animal reservoirs
3. Detect disease outbreaks early
4. Prevent pandemics
5. Add value to health research and development

Read the full post on the CGIAR Development Dialogues blog

Read an earlier full version of this story on the ILRI News blog

 

ILRI food safety researchers present on health impacts of aflatoxins in animal-source foods

Aflatoxins are highly toxic fungal by-products produced by certain strains of Aspergillus flavus in grains and other crops. Consumption of very high levels of aflatoxins can cause acute illness and death. Chronic exposure to aflatoxins is linked to liver cancer, especially where hepatitis is prevalent, and this is estimated to cause as many as 26,000 deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa.

Aflatoxins in contaminated animal feed not only result in reduced animal productivity, but the toxins can end up in products like milk, meat and eggs, thus presenting a health risk to humans. Of these animal-source food products, milk has the greatest risk because relatively large amounts of aflatoxin are carried over and milk is consumed especially by infants.

As part of knowledge exchange on the latest research developments in the area of aflatoxins and food safety, Delia Grace and Johanna Lindahl, food safety researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), presented on aflatoxins, animal health and the safety of animal-source foods at a virtual briefing organized by the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, a network of 37 bilateral donors, multilateral agencies and international financing institutions working to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable rural development.

Their presentation began with an overview of aflatoxins and how livestock and fish get exposed to aflatoxins. This was followed by a discussion on the impact of aflatoxins on animal health and production, how aflatoxins in crops move through the food chain to end up in animal-source foods and ways to manage the risk of aflatoxins in animals and animal-source foods.

The need for evidence-based approaches in developing standards for animal feeds was highlighted, as well as the need for risk-based regulation and legislation to provide guidelines on safety issues such as appropriate management of aflatoxin-contaminated feed.

The presentation concluded with a summary of the key messages and policy recommendations, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Watch the recording of the briefing (approx. 34 minutes)

Jump to the question-and-answer session [16:37]

More information on research on aflatoxins and food safety is available in a set of 19 research briefs published in November 2013 by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The briefs were co-edited by Laurian Unnevehr of IFPRI and Delia Grace of ILRI.

Read more about ILRI’s research projects on aflatoxins

• Capacity and action for aflatoxin reduction in eastern Africa
• Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins in maize and dairy products for poor consumers in Kenya

 

ILRI scientists present at international ecohealth conference

Typical mixed crop-livestock farming of western Kenya. The EcoHealth 2014 conference will discuss ecohealth research under the theme ‘Connections for health, ecosystems and society’ (photo credit: ILRI/Charlie Pye-Smith).

A group of scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) will join hundreds of ecohealth researchers from all over the world for the fifth biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology and Health which begins today, 11 August 2014, in Montréal, Canada.

Jimmy Smith, director general of ILRI, gives a keynote address on 13 August and several ILRI scientists will give oral and poster presentations. Delia Grace and Johanna Lindahl from ILRI’s Food Safety and Zoonoses program will lead a special session on integrative approaches to disease modelling.

The four-day conference, dubbed EcoHealth 2014, is co-hosted by the Canadian Community of Practice in EcoHealth and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Well-Being, Health, Society and Environment of the Université du Québec at Montréal. The overall theme of the conference is ‘Connections for health, ecosystems and society’.

The three main sub-themes of the conference are:

• Drivers of change to health, ecosystems and society: Integrating understanding from global to local scales
• Innovations in theory, methods and practice
• Moving between research and action: Mobilizing knowledge to benefit health, ecosystems, and society

In addition to the keynote addresses and presentations during plenary, parallel and poster sessions, the conference will hold an international discussion forum on 12 August. The discussion forum is a combined webinar and face-to-face activity that will focus on the conference statement addressing ‘Ecohealth and Climate Change’.

The webinar will involve a panel of international discussants (offsite and onsite) who will address synergies, connections and next steps relevant to the conference statement and their work. Two webinar sessions are planned in order to optimize participation across time-zones.

Register for the webinar

Find out more about the conference

 

ILRI gives ‘one health’ training to support pig health project in the Philippines

ILRI Asia

ILRI’s Fred Unger (back row with glasses) and Jackie Escarcha (second left, front row) with the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development team and other participants of an ‘ecohealth’ and ‘one health’ seminar held in Pampanga, Philippines in July 2014 (photo credit: ILRI).

On 30-31 July 2014, Fred Unger, a veterinary epidemiologist and Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM) expert with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), visited the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) project site in Pampanga, Philippines and served as a resource speaker for a ‘seminar on ecohealth and one health: An introduction‘. Unger was accompanied, at the seminar, by Jackie Escarcha from ILRI’s office in Los Banos.

The PCAARRD project, represented by Edwin Villar, the director for livestock division, held the introductory seminar for the project team to gain basic understanding of ‘ecohealth’ and ‘one health’ approaches…

View original post 146 more words

 

New livestock maps pinpoint ‘danger zones’ for possible spread of deadly H7N9 strain of bird flu

ILRI Clippings

Feeding poultry in Bangladesh (photo on Flickr by WorldFish).

A recent paper that maps the global distributions of the world’s major livestock species has already been used to advance understanding of where surveillance efforts should be targeted to prevent the possible spread of a lethal bird flu virus now circulating in poultry populations in China, where it has killed 62 people. The original mapping work, led by Tim Robinson, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and published at the end of May, was immediately put to practical use in locating large regions in South and Southeast Asia that would suit the new lethal virus. Ominously, unlike H5N1, a viral strain of bird flu that has killed millions of poultry and at least 359 humans since its first appearance in 1987, H7N9 does not cause severe illness in the chickens it infects, making it much more difficult to detect, and…

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New UK funding for disease surveillance will improve health and farming in Kenya

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is one of the partners in a new £3.6m research project led by the University of Liverpool aimed at reducing the incidence of diseases transmitted between people and livestock in western Kenya.

ILRI news

A small mixed crop-livestock farm in Western Kenya (photo credit: LCC CRSP/Mark Nanyingi).

The University of Liverpool has been given funding to start a surveillance program to reduce the incidence of diseases transmitted between people and livestock in western Kenya.

The £3.6 million grant will train veterinary and medical technicians to monitor farms, markets and slaughterhouses. They will use a mobile data collection system to generate a comprehensive database of the prevalence and economic impact of these diseases. The information generated will be used to provide evidence for government health policy in the area.

The area around Lake Victoria is among the most densely populated in East Africa and its population is still growing rapidly. To meet increasing local demand for milk, meat and eggs, many livestock farmers are ‘intensifying’ their subsistence farming methods.

But livestock here carry many diseases, called zoonoses, that are transmitted to humans from animals. This…

View original post 369 more words

 

ILRI scientists present at international conference on building resilience for food and nutrition security

Delia Grace presenting at a side session on ‘Food safety: Options for addressing a growing crisis’ at IFPRI’s 2020 Conference on ‘Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security’ (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan)

On 15-17 May 2014, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) held an international conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on building resilience for food and nutrition security, with over 700 participants in attendance including researchers, policymakers and decision-makers.

Scientists from the Food Safety and Zoonoses program of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) were among the many speakers who presented at parallel sessions and side events.

Delia Grace gave a presentation on food safety in informal markets during a side event on Food safety: Options for addressing a growing crisis. She also spoke on dealing with food safety, nutrition, and public health crises during one of the parallel sessions.

Hung Nguyen-Viet spoke on food-borne diseases and public health shocks in East Asia and the Pacific while Bernard Bett presented on managing impacts from infectious disease outbreaks in dryland areas of East Africa.

More ILRI reports from the conference

Visit the conference website for more information and to access more of the conference resources.

 

New article outlines pathway to develop business case for One Health

Livestock farming in the highlands of Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu).

One Health refers to the collaborative effort of multiple disciplines to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. Although the usefulness of the One Health approach is widely appreciated, thanks to a growing body of evidence, its uptake remains limited and health management is still largely organized by sector.

How, then, can One Health proponents build a compelling business case for it? A new article published in the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research (23 April 2014) may be of help; it outlines a pathway to develop the business case for One Health.

It also identifies five key areas where One Health is likely to make a difference. These are:

1. sharing health resources between the medical and veterinary sectors;
2. controlling zoonotic diseases in animal reservoirs;
3. early detection of and response to emerging diseases;
4. prevention of pandemics; and
5. generating insights and adding value to health research and development.

The literature reviewed suggests that every dollar invested in One Health would yield five dollars worth of benefits. Therefore, increased investment in One Health on a large scale has the potential to transform the management of emerging and neglected zoonotic diseases and save the lives of millions of people and animals.

The article is authored by Delia Grace, veterinary epidemiologist and food safety specialist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). She heads ILRI’s research program on food safety and zoonoses as well as the agriculture-associated diseases theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH).

Access the article here

Citation
Grace D. 2014. The business case for One Health. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research 81(2), 6 pages.