The future of hunger: How animal science supports global food security

In the past few weeks, Madeline McCurry-Schmidt has published a series of short pieces exploring ways that animal scientists can help feed the world’s growing population.

Published on the American Society of Animal Science ‘Taking Stock’ blog, the five articles covered:

Part 1 – explored the coming food crisis from a livestock perspective
Part 2 – looked at how animal scientists use new nutrition research and technology to increase feed efficiency
Part 3 – looked at how new research and technology related to animal breeding can make animal production more efficient
Part 4 – looked at ways animal scientists can treat and prevent the diseases that threaten animal and human health
Part 5 – looked at the challenges of applying animal science research around the world.

All five parts can also be downloaded as a single PDF file

 

GALVmed ‘Livestock 2012′ e-discussion – Ways to improve livestock development in Africa

GALVmed – the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines – just published an ‘Impetus Strategy Paper’ that  puts forward ideas on the directions Africa’s livestock sector needs to take to maximise prospects for  African livestock farmers, based on evidence and opinion from Sub Saharan Africa.

To validate and extend the discussions, GALVmed has set up an e-discussion where livestock experts can give their opinion about the ideas contained in the paper.

The e-discussion agenda is as follows:

• 14th  –27th March: The State of Africa’s livestock sector;
• 28th March – 14th April: Improving animal health services for the rural farmers;
• 15th  – 28th  April:  Feeding Africa’s Ruminants for food security and prosperity;
• 29th April- 16th May: Small livestock farmers increasing their income – trade and market access.

Read the Impetus Strategy Paper

Join the e-discussion

Visit the GALVmed web site

 

Small livestock, big impact

Kenyan geneticist and new PhD Sheila Ommeh (right) works at the Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA Hub) and ILRI’s animal health laboratories in Nairobi, Kenya, studying Africa’s native chicken breeds (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan).

‘Sheila Ommeh, a poultry geneticist at the International Livestock Research Centre in Nairobi, hopes to introduce a disease-resistant chicken that can be easily reared by women farmers.

‘The humble chicken may be a small bird but it could play a big role in reducing rural poverty in Africa, particularly among women farmers. . . .

‘Ommeh knows a thing or two about chickens, having grown up on the slopes of Mount Elgon in western Kenya where most homes rely on poultry flocks for food and income.

‘Her mother, aunts and grandmothers all kept chickens and the birds even paid for some of her schooling.

‘Three quarters of rural households in Kenya rear poultry, which is a cheap source of good protein. These smallholders are mostly women.

‘But Ommeh has seen first-hand how virulent diseases like Newcastle and Gomboro can wipe out flocks and destroy families’ livelihoods, increasing hunger and forcing parents to pull their children out of school because they can’t afford to pay for it. . . .

‘Although women produce most of the food consumed in Africa, only one in four agricultural researchers are female and even fewer hold leadership positions in African agricultural research institutions.

‘One organisation trying to close this gap is African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), which is helping women like Ommeh build their technical and leadership skills. . . .

‘Ommeh, who holds a PhD in chicken genetics, firmly believes that the answers to Africa’s problems lie within Africa.

In my view … it’s about time Africa looked for solutions in Africa for Africa,” she told TrustLaw, during a trip to London to address a group of British MPs about empowering African women scientists.

‘. . . The 34-year-old scientist believes it should be possible to produce a disease-resistant breed that weighs around 4 kilogrammes and produces 250 eggs a year – about three times the weight and yield of indigenous chickens. . . .

Chicken is a small livestock but I believe it has the capacity to have a big impact.”. . .’

Read the whole article at TrustLaw: Designer chicken could help empower Africa’s rural women, 07 Mar 2012.

 

Elevage en régions chaudes

L’agriculture – et plus particulièrement les productions animales – sont depuis quelques années au coeur des préoccupations mondiales, si l’on en juge par les nombreux rapports produits par diverses institutions internationales.

Les productions animales au Sud se trouvent ainsi dans une situation paradoxale : elles doivent faire face à une évolution importante de la demande à moyen terme, dans un contexte nouveau, marqué notamment par les tensions sur les disponibilités et les coûts des intrants et par la prise en compte impérative tant des contributions que des effets liés au changement climatique.

C’est dans ce contexte particulier, et en prolongement de la réflexion menée en France par l’Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) et le Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) dans le cadre du chantier ‘Production animale en régions chaudes’ (PARC) rappelé dans la préface, que la Rédaction de la revue INRA Productions animales a décidé de consacrer un numéro complet (Numéro 1 2011) au thème de l’élevage en régions chaudes.

Ce numéro spécial comprend les articles (complets) suivants :

• Introduction générale
• Évolution des productions animales terrestres et aquacoles dans le monde : tendances globales et implications économiques, sociales et environnementales
• Ressources tropicales : disponibilité et valeur alimentaire.
• Adaptation des animaux d’élevage aux multiples contraintes des régions chaudes.
• Spécificités de la santé animale en régions chaudes : le cas des maladies infectieuses majeures en Afrique.
• Elevage et qualité des produits en régions chaudes.
• Impacts et services environnementaux de l’élevage en régions chaudes.
• Conception et évaluation de systèmes d’élevage durables en régions chaudes.
• Élevage, filières et territoires en régions chaudes.
• Élevages et sociétés : les rôles multiples de l’élevage dans les pays tropicaux.

 

ILRI scientists put livestock squarely on the (human) health table

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Delia Grace will lead a one-hour session on some of the urgent, complex and fascinating issues at the interface of human and animal health …

Watch this 3-minute photofilm with commentary by Delia Grace and small-scale butchers and consumers interviewed along Langata Road in Nairobi, Kenya. Dying For Meat was made for ILRI by duckrabbit, a digital production company based in the UK doing high-quality audio-visual story-telling and training.

For the last couple of years, Delia Grace, an Irish veterinarian and veterinary scientist, has worked closely with John McDermott, another veterinary researcher and former deputy director general for research for ILRI. McDermott departed ILRI last Friday to take up an appointment as director of a new CGIAR Research Program on nutrition and health. Starting today, McDermott will be based at ILRI’s sister institute, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in Washington, DC.

Grace will lead ILRI’s livestock inputs to the multi-centre CGIAR Research Program on Nutrition and Health that McDermott now directs.

Earlier this year, Grace and McDermott helped put livestock issues squarely on the (human) health table when they made key presentations at a high-profile IFPRI conference, Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health, held in Delhi in Feb 2011.

Poster at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport at the height of the SARS scare (photo on Flickr by dmealiffe’s).

At that time, Reuters published this report on ILRI’s contribution to the conference.

‘A growing number of livestock, such as cows and pigs, are fuelling new animal epidemics worldwide and posing more severe problems in developing countries as it threatens their food security, according to a report released on Friday.

‘Epidemics in recent years, such as SARS and the H1N1 swine flu, are estimated to have caused billions of dollars in economic costs.

‘Some 700 million people keep farm animals in developing countries and these animals generate up to 40 percent of household income, the report by the International Livestock Research Institute said.

‘”Wealthy countries are effectively dealing with livestock diseases, but in Africa and Asia, the capacity of veterinary services to track and control outbreaks is lagging dangerously behind livestock intensification,” John McDermott and Delia Grace at the Nairobi-based institute said in a statement on the report.

‘”This lack of capacity is particularly dangerous because many poor people in the world still rely on farm animals to feed their families, while rising demand for meat, milk and eggs among urban consumers in the developing world is fueling a rapid intensification of livestock production.”

‘Seventy-five percent of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals, they added. Of these 61 percent are transmissible between animals and humans.

‘”A new disease emerges every four months; many are trivial but HIV, SARS and avian influenza (eg. H5N1) illustrate the huge potential impacts,” McDermott and Grace wrote in the report. . . .

‘The two researchers urged developing countries to improve animal disease surveillance and speed up testing procedures to help contain livestock epidemics before they become widespread.’

Read the whole article at Reuters: Growing number of farm animals spawn new diseases, 11 February 2011.

---

On 9 and 10 November 2011, the ILRI Board of Trustees hosted a 2-day ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ to discuss and reflect on livestock research for development. The event synthesized sector and ILRI learning and helped frame future livestock research for development directions.

The liveSTOCK Exchange also marked the leadership and contributions of Dr. Carlos Seré as ILRI Director General. See all posts in this series / Sign up for email alerts

 

Priorities for researching livestock diseases in Africa

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Oumar Diall, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), reflects on ILRI’s animal health work in West Africa …

In past years, most livestock research centered on three pillars: Animal health, animal reproduction and genetics, and animal nutrition. Fewer livestock studies were done on socioeconomics (e.g. market studies) and the environment.

In the field of animal health, ILRI and one of its two predecessors, the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD), concentrated its research on two priority diseases—trypanosomosis and East Coast fever—aiming to produce effective vaccines. Although these goals were not fully achieved, ILRAD then ILRI contributed in improving fundamental knowledge and technologies on these topics and trained many young African scientists in different aspects of those two diseases. Much progress was made in the knowledge of bovine immunology and in establishing trypanosome in-vitro cultures.

Later on, these specific scientific themes were overtaken by attention to socioeconomics, in such a manner that research on trypanosomosis and East Coast fever has been reduced to an absolute minimum. But it is noticeable that ILRI has, in the last 10 years, successfully researched parasite resistance to trypanocidal drugs used to control trypanosomosis in the cotton belt of West Africa, generating very interesting tools to minimize the development of drug resistance.

Research priorities
After the eradication of rinderpest, parasitic diseases like trypanosomosis remain a priority. Another high-priority disease is contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, mainly for the development of an effective vaccine, in which ILRI and its Biosciences eastern and central Africa initiative are expected to play a major role.

In the near future, ILRI will have to find the right balance between the hard and social sciences, as the number of hard scientists there becomes rarer. And ILRI should find a mechanism by which it could capture research priorities of Africa via regional research organizations such as the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research for Development. It is also important to re-deploy more scientists in West Africa and to stop relying on scientists coming for a few days’ missions (a phenonmenon now being called ‘scientific tourism’). ILRI should also attempt to better integrate its programs into country or regional programs such as the Centre international de recherche-développement sur l’elevage en zone subhumide, the International Trypanotolerance Centre, the Pan African Veterinary Vaccine Center, the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Campaign and the Africa Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources.

Contributed by Oumar Diall, former coordinator of an ILRI research project to reduce trypanosomosis and trypanosome drug resistance in West Africa and currently Animal Health Officer at FAO, Ghana.

---

On 9 and 10 November 2011, the ILRI Board of Trustees hosted a 2-day ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ to discuss and reflect on livestock research for development. The event synthesized sector and ILRI learning and helped frame future livestock research for development directions.

The liveSTOCK Exchange also marked the leadership and contributions of Dr. Carlos Seré as ILRI Director General. See all posts in this series / Sign up for email alerts

 

Animal health and emerging diseases a focus for CIRAD in East and Southern Africa

The Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) is a French research center working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues.

It’s recently updated site on it work in East and Southern Africa introduces CIRAD’s activities in the region. ‘Animal health and emerging diseases’ is one of the focus areas and includes the following projects:

• Risk analysis in swine fever transmission (ASFRISK)
• A regional network on Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)
• Ecology and epidemiology of avian influenza (H1N1) in Southern countries (GRIPAVI)
• Ngamiland Interface Disease Investigation (NIDI)
• Effect of increased aridity and drought frequency on socio-écological systems in the savanna (SAVARID)
• Improving swine fever control in Maurice (TCP)
• Vaccines for the Control of Neglected Animal Diseases in Africa (VACNADA)

Visit the web site

 

Next generation animal disease screening tools identified by FAZD Center

The US National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense> (FAZD Center) just released the report from its second Agricultural Screening Tools Workshop, entitled: ‘Enhancing Ag Resiliency: The Agricultural Industry Perspective of Utilizing Agricultural Screening Tools’.

This joins the report of the first Agricultural Screening Tools Workshop: ‘Defining the Needs and Requirements for Agricultural Screening Tools’.

‘Agricultural screening tools’ were defined as: “A tool used to detect a potential disease or condition in an animal, group of animals, or animal product. The tool may be used in any phase of an outbreak response, and is not required to be confirmatory (diagnostic) in nature, but rather is intended for rapid initial detection.”

Read more … (FAZD Center)

 

Livestock disease challenges and gaps in the delivery of animal health services in East Africa

This brief from the East Africa Dairy Development Project highlights key results of a baseline survey to assess gaps in the delivery of animal health services in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Specifically, the survey assessed the main animal health problems; preventive and curative measures used to control animal diseases; livestock farmers’ access to veterinary and livestock extension services; and the cost of veterinary and livestock extension services.

Download the paper

The East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is implemented by a consortium of partners led by Heifer International. It is currently being piloted in 18 sites in Kenya, 8 in Rwanda and 27 in Uganda. The overall goal of the project is to transform the lives of 179,000 families, or about 1 million people, by doubling household dairy income in 10 years through integrated interventions in dairy production, market access and knowledge application.

 

Global veterinary vaccines market to reach US$5.6 billion by 2015

Given the frequent outbreaks of animal diseases such as bird flu, avian influenza, anthrax, and other viral and bacterial infections, animal healthcare has gained tremendous significance across the globe.

The global veterinary vaccines market waned in 2008 and 2009, as a result of the global meltdown. The market, nevertheless, recovered in 2010 and is expected to post substantial growth in ensuing years. Growing demand for the vaccines from Asia, Latin America and Eastern European countries and increased vulnerability of animals to the diseases is steering the demand for veterinary vaccines. Rapidly changing patterns of the diseases among the animals and increased development of resistance to the currently used antimicrobials is compelling the manufacturers to invest heavily in new product developments. Adoption of novel animal husbandry techniques and different farming conditions are attributed as the major factors for emergence of newer diseases. Growing awareness on animal health and benefits of early detection and preventive medicines will drive the demand for veterinary vaccines over the next few years. Technology innovations, in particular DNA-related vaccines, and introduction of new products that are capable of ensuring greater production and immune responses than traditional vaccines also augurs well for the future of veterinary vaccines market.

Read more … (PRweb)