Study explores effect of land use and biodiversity changes on risk of zoonoses in Tana River County, Kenya

Orma Boran cattle crossing a river in Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Rosemary Dolan).

The Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium is a research program that works to understand the relationships between ecosystems, zoonotic diseases, health and wellbeing in order to inform effective public health interventions.

Under this program, multidisciplinary country teams are studying four zoonotic diseases: henipavirus infection in Ghana, Lassa fever in Sierra Leone, Rift Valley fever in Kenya and trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The focus is on how changes in biodiversity, land use and climate affect disease transmission.

The development of irrigation schemes is thought to influence pathogen transmission in people and animals in several ways. For example, masses of stagnant water and high humidity support the development of disease vectors like mosquitoes. In addition, irrigated areas are likely to have a higher density of animal hosts like chicken and small ruminants.

In order to investigate the influence of irrigation and changes in biodiversity on the distribution of zoonoses, a cross-sectional study was carried out in Tana River County, Kenya, home to the Hola Irrigation Scheme. The zoonoses of interest were Rift Valley fever, Q fever, brucellosis, West Nile virus, dengue fever and leptospirosis.

Irrigation causes a decline in biodiversity as wildlife habitats are cleared to make way for crop agriculture. However, the linkages between biodiversity and disease risk remain unclear. It was also found that areas with a rich diversity of hosts have higher prevalence of multiple zoonotic pathogens as compared to areas with lower host diversity.

The study also found that while irrigated areas are infested with multiple species of mosquitoes (including primary vectors of Rift Valley fever), their high population densities alone are not enough to sustain the transmission of pathogens; reservoir hosts (for example, birds for West Nile virus) or other persistence mechanisms are required.

These and other findings from the study were presented at the 49th annual scientific conference of the Kenya Veterinary Association which was held in April 2015.

View the presentation, Land use, biodiversity changes and the risk of zoonotic diseases: Findings from a cross-sectional study in Tana River County, Kenya

 

New ILRI report reviews the use of a Rift Valley fever decision support tool in Kenya

Orma Boran cattle crossing a river in Kenya. Rift Valley fever can infect both cattle and people (photo credit: ILRI /Rosemary Dolan).

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has published a discussion paper on a study carried out to identify the successes and challenges associated with the use of a Rift Valley fever decision support tool in Kenya.

The decision support tool was developed by various stakeholders from government and non-government sectors following the 2006-07 outbreak of Rift Valley fever in East Africa. It identifies events leading to the disease outbreak and matches them with interventions that could be implemented at each point.

The study involved three activities:

• a review of literature to describe systems that could be used with the decision support tool and to identify how other frameworks have been used to support disease control policies
• focus group discussions and key informant interviews with farmer groups, local and international organizations and decision-makers in the Department of Veterinary Services
• a stakeholder workshop to validate the findings obtained and develop recommendations on ways to improve awareness and utilization of the framework

Download the discussion paper

Citation
Mbotha, D. and Bett, B. 2015. Utilization of the Rift Valley fever decision support tool in Kenya: Successes and challenges. ILRI Discussion Paper 28. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.

 

Informing national Rift Valley fever control plans: An ILRI impact narrative

Rift Valley fever, a viral disease that is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, causes abortion and stillbirth in livestock and can cause serious conditions such as haemorrhagic fever and encephalitis in humans.

Download a brief that illustrates how scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are working to identify key drivers for Rift Valley fever occurrence and transmission, and develop decision support tools to guide responses at various stages of the epidemic cycle of the disease.

Developed after the last devastating Rift Valley fever outbreak in Kenya in 2006-07, these research outputs are designed to enable decision-makers to take timely, evidence-based decisions to prevent and control future epidemics and reduce their impacts.

In particular, the Government of Kenya has incorporated the decision support tool in its Rift Valley fever contingency plan and local governments in the country regularly use outputs from ILRI’s work to assess their level of preparedness.

 

ILRI research on animal health and food safety featured at the 6th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture

ILRI scientist Silvia Alonso presents at the 6th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture held at Nairobi, Kenya on 27-30 October 2014 (photo credit: ILRI/Tezira Lore).

Scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) yesterday (28 Oct 2014) presented some of their recent research findings from studies on animal health and food safety in East Africa at the 6th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture. The conference is being held from 27 to 30 October 2014 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

Some 300 participants from all over Africa and beyond are attending the conference whose theme is Africa’s animal agriculture: Macro-trends and future opportunities. The five conference sub-themes are:

• Youth: The future hope?
• Which way for smallholder production systems?
• Pastoral systems: Options for tomorrow
• Market access: Opportunities for enhanced access to local, regional and global markets
• Africa’s human capacity challenge for animal agriculture: Which way now?

Silvia Alonso, a postdoctoral scientist with ILRI’s Food Safety and Zoonoses program presented the following two papers:

• Smallholder pig producers and their pork consumption practices in three districts in Uganda (presented on behalf of lead author Kristina Roesel, an ILRI graduate fellow at Freie Universitaet Berlin and coordinator of the Safe Food, Fair Food project)
• Vaccination as a way forward? A case study on how a poultry vaccination intervention influences poultry keeping in Kenya (presented on behalf of lead author Johanna Lindahl, an ILRI postdoctoral scientist)

Results from a study on Kenyan milk consumers’ behaviour and perceptions of aflatoxin were also presented. This study was a joint output of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets.

Additionally, the following ILRI posters on smallholder dairying in Tanzania and pastoralism in Kenya and Tanzania featured in the poster session:

• Smallholder dairy farming in Tanzania: Farming practices, and animal health and public health challenges and opportunities
• Pastoralism in Kenya and Tanzania: Challenges and opportunities in animal health and food security
• Creating novel approaches to mitigate aflatoxin risk in food and feed with lactic acid bacteria – mold growth inhibition and aflatoxin binding

 

Posters by projects in ILRI’s Food Safety and Zoonoses program featured at the 6th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture held at Nairobi, Kenya on 27-30 October 2014 (photo credit: ILRI/Tezira Lore).

 

 

 

Slaughterhouse number 5 – examining zoonotic diseases in western Kenya

 

Annie Cook is a graduate fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya. In this blog post she describes a day in the life of her PhD project.

“I am a veterinary epidemiologist which means I investigate the behaviour of diseases in animal populations. I am particularly interested in zoonoses: diseases that pass from animals to people.”

“The research project I am conducting was requested by the community. During a previous study that looked at zoonotic diseases in pigs at slaughter, our research group was asked to develop a project examining disease in the workers themselves. The workers wanted to know the occupational risks they faced at work.”

Read the full post on the CGIAR Development Dialogues blog

 

Mitigation of the impacts of Rift Valley fever through targeted vaccination strategies

The Rift Valley fever virus is a mosquito-borne pathogen that causes explosive outbreaks of severe human and livestock disease in Africa and Arabian Peninsula. The rapid evolution of outbreaks of Rift Valley fever generates exceptional challenges in its mitigation and control.

A decision-support tool for prevention and control of Rift Valley fever in the Greater Horn of Africa identifies a series of events that indicates increasing risk of an outbreak and matches interventions to each event.

This poster, prepared for the Tropentag 2014 conference, presents information from a study that assessed the effectiveness of targeted vaccination in mitigating the impacts of outbreaks of Rift Valley fever.

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Mitigation of the impacts of Rift Valley fever through targeted vaccination strategies

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.

 

 

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.

 

Aflatoxins: serious threat to food safety and food security, but is it related to livestock?

Aflatoxins are cancer-causing mycotoxins produced by the mould Aspergillus flavus. Aspergillus can grow in a wide range of foods and feed and thrives under favourable conditions of high temperature and moisture content.

Aflatoxin contamination can occur before crops are harvested when temperatures are high, during harvest if wet conditions occur and after harvest if there is insect damage to the stored crop or if moisture levels are high during storage and transportation.

Aflatoxins in contaminated animal feed not only result in reduced animal productivity, but can also end up in milk, meat and eggs, thus presenting a health risk to humans.

The poster below, prepared for the Tropentag 2014  conference, presents an overview of a research project led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) aimed at measuring and mitigating the risk of aflatoxins in the feed-dairy chain in Kenya.

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Aflatoxins: serious threat to food safety and food security, but is it related to livestock?

This week, ILRI staff are participating in the Tropentag 2014 International Conference in Prague (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 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 graduate fellow to attend international training course on modelling of epidemiological data

John Muthii Muriuki, ILRI graduate fellow attached to the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa project (photo credit: ILRI/John M. Muriuki).

The South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) has invited John Muthii Muriuki, a graduate fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), to attend its fifth annual clinic on the meaningful modelling of epidemiological data. The clinic takes place on 2-13 June 2014 at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa.

The highly competitive training course is offered in collaboration with the International Clinics on Infectious Disease Dynamics and Data (ICI3D) program and AIMS. Participants will include graduate students, postdoctoral students and researchers from Africa and North America.

The clinic focuses on the use of data in understanding infectious disease dynamics. Participants will work on epidemiological modelling projects that use real data to grapple with practical questions in a meaningful way.

Muriuki is studying for a Master’s degree in veterinary epidemiology and economics at the University of Nairobi. He was attached to the Kenya team of the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa project that is exploring the drivers of Rift Valley fever in the country and took part in sampling and community surveys in Garissa and Tana River.

He is excited at the opportunity to take part in the clinic and expects to learn more about modelling the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases.

“This clinic could not have come at a better time because I’m now developing a malaria transmission model in an irrigated set-up. Through this training, I expect to get more ideas to refine the model,” said Muriuki.

“I have a lot of interest in epidemiological modelling. The knowledge and skills gained from the clinic will enable me further my research work in this noble area,” he added.

Bernard Bett, a veterinary epidemiologist at ILRI and one of Muriuki’s supervisors, is confident that the training will enable Muriuki to refine the malaria transmission model being developed.

“It will also be a good opportunity for him to build networks with other professionals working on infectious disease research,” said Bett, who also leads the Kenya team of the Dynamic Drivers of Disease project.