Guinea pigs for African tables? A ‘Cavy Innovation Platform’ is set up in Cameroon

Cavies (aka guinea pigs) in a special pig pantry off the side of a kitchen in Peru (photo on Flickr by Emile Hardman/QuintanaRoo).

Could guinea pigs be a new protein source in Africa? In a special report  on ‘Solutions for a hungry world’ by AlertNet, Emma Batha describes how the raising of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus), also called ‘cavies’ (in Spanish, cuyo), a traditional food of Andean tribes, is taking hold in Africa. (Despite their common name, guinea pigs are not in the pig family and not from Guinea.)

‘. . . Researchers working on a livestock project in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) three years ago were astonished to find families keeping the rodents, also known as cavies.

I was very surprised to see them,” said Brigitte Maass, a scientist with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. “We’re not sure how or when they got to DRC, but they have enormous potential to boost nutrition and improve rural livelihoods.

‘She said cavies could provide a great source of cheap protein in DRC, which has some of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world. The lean white meat is around 20 percent protein, more than beef or lamb, and the skin is more than 30 percent protein.

‘Researchers believe the fighting that has ravaged the east of the country for well over a decade may have encouraged people to breed the small animals as larger livestock are often looted. Cavies are easy to hide and light to carry if people are forced to flee their homes.

‘“In many, many communities cavies were the only animal that people kept for providing protein and also some limited income,” said Appolinaire Djikeng, a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), who is leading the cavy research project. “They were mobile banks, as people referred to them.”

‘Djikeng said cavies had several advantages over larger livestock for poor households. You don’t need much investment to start breeding them and you don’t need land—most are kept indoors, which may explain why they have been almost invisible until now.

‘Cavies can survive on kitchen waste, so unlike grain-fed livestock they do not compete with humans for food. They reproduce quickly, with females giving birth to 10–15 young a year.

‘And there are no big threats from diseases as there are with poultry. Farmers also say their droppings make very good manure for crops.

‘“Cavies could have a significant role in improving food security in poor communities across Africa,” Djikeng said. “They are recognised as an important player for driving people out of poverty.” . . .

‘In Africa, cavies are predominantly kept by women and children and provide an important source of income for them. Children often use the animals to pay for school fees.

‘In Tanzania, Maass said the animal’s small size and ease of handling made them popular in households headed by children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

‘Scientists are now trying to map the genetic diversity of cavy populations in Africa with a view to establishing breeding programmes. At the moment, farmers report a lot of inbreeding which in turn causes high mortality rates, Djikeng told AlertNet by phone from Nairobi. . . .

There is now significant recognition that not everyone will own cows, goats or sheep,” Djikeng said. “But people can quickly own these other animals, which to some extent will provide them access to income and nutritious food.”

‘Djikeng said they were helping Cameroon set up a Cavy Innovation Platform to encourage cavy production and share information. The forum will include policymakers, universities, agricultural research institutes, non-governmental organisations and farmers’ associations as well as hotel and restaurant entrepreneurs who can promote cavy dishes.

‘They plan to set up a similar platform in DRC in the coming weeks and eventually establish them in other countries.’

Read the whole article at AlertNet: Could guinea pigs be a new protein source in Africa?, 2 May 2012.

 

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.

 

Changing the face of agriculture in Africa–one (emerging woman) leader at a time

CGIAR AWARD Fellow Sheila Ommeh, working at ILRI-BecA, gives a presentation on the importance of conserving and better using Africa’s native chicken breeds for World Bank vice president Rachel Kyte on 2 Feb 2012 at the World Agroforestry Centre (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan).

The Huffington Post this week carries a blog by Sir Gordon Conway, professor of international development at Imperial College London, who says that African governments and those that work with them need to make women a much higher priority. As an example of how much difference African women can make, he cites recent statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the work of Sheila Ommeh, an AWARD Fellow and chicken geneticist working at the Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA Hub) of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sheila Ommeh is passionate about poultry. A PhD fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute, based in Nairobi, Kenya, Sheila hopes to introduce a disease-resistant chicken using indigenous breeds that can be easily produced by women farmers.

Sheila has a home grown understanding of the importance of poultry farming to the rural poor. Her mother and grandmother raised chickens to support the family’s children. But disease prevalence was high and the flock was wiped out on occasion. When the chickens died, money for food and school fees was in short supply. Sheila grew up determined to help find a solution.

‘The majority of those who produce, process, and market food in Africa are women. Furthermore, according to the FAO’s 2010–11 State of Food and Agriculture report, women make up, on average, 50 percent of the agricultural labor force in sub-Saharan Africa.

‘Nevertheless, only one in four (25 percent) agricultural researchers in Africa is female. Even fewer, one in seven (14 percent), hold leadership positions in African agricultural research institutions.

‘So how can we ensure that Africa’s agricultural science and research is really focused on the needs of those who feed the world?

‘African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) is a ground-breaking career-development program that helps female agricultural researchers to build their technical and leadership skills. The 250 women in AWARD come from 11 different countries, and share one common goal: to change the face of agriculture in Africa. . . .

‘In 2008, Sheila won a fellowship from AWARD to help realize her ambitions. On March 7—on the eve of International Women’s Day—you can hear more of her story, alongside other speakers from AWARD, the International Institute for Environment and Development, Oxfam GB, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Agriculture for Impact is working with AWARD and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development to convene the panel discussion on “Effective Solutions for Agricultural Development through Empowered Women Scientists.” . . .

Read the whole blog post at the Huffington Post: Who feeds the world? (Girls), 2 Mar 2012.

Read about Ommeh’s presentation in Feb 2012 to World Bank vice president Rachel Kyte: World Bank vice president Rachel Kyte in Nairobi town hall on ‘big picture agriculture’, 2 Feb 2012.

About Sheila Ommeh
Thirty-four-year-old Ommeh grew up on the slopes of Mount Elgon in western Kenya where indigenous chicken is a popular staple food for the rural community and where local breeds are reared mostly women and children. Newcastle and other viral diseases and the looming threat of bird flu threaten livelihoods of these small-scale poultry producers, and can lead to increased hunger and poverty. The focus of Ommeh’s recent PhD was a search for candidate chicken genes controlling for resistance, tolerance or susceptibility to chicken viral diseases such as bird flu and Newcastle disease, which to date have no cure or vaccine. Her long-term aim is to help build a genetically improved chicken breed that will be resistant to disease and easily adopted by the rural community.

In August 2008, Ommeh was among 60 African women scientists selected from more than 900 candidates in nine countries to receive an “African Women in Agricultural Research & Development” (AWARD) Fellowship for 2008–2010. AWARD is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and managed by the Gender and Diversity (G&D) program of the CGIAR.

 

African biosciences ‘hub’ highlighted at AAAS meeting in Vancouver

BecA-ILRI Hub - cutting-edge science creating solutions for African agriculture

With international funding, the Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA-ILRI Hub), based in Nairobi, Kenya, and managed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), is enabling African and international scientists to partner on a wide range of new and exciting research programs. Most of these research programs focus on both animal and crop health for better productivity under challenges including diseases and abiotic stresses.

With help from its global investors—the Australian government’s Agency for International Development; Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture; and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (through the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency)—the BecA-ILRI Hub has set up a unique capacity-building fund, referred to as the Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund for African scientists. This fund enables African scientists from across the continent to access BecA’s world-class research facilities and scientific support skills to advance their research.

The BecA-ILRI Hub is about helping Africans deal with Africa’s underlying issues with food production, nutrition and animal health—by investing in our scientists and students,’ says Segenet Kelemu, director of the BecA-ILRI Hub.

‘So many of our talented African scientists leave Africa to progress their careers and don’t come back to Africa, finding opportunities elsewhere in the world. This is a big problem for Africa,’ says Appolinaire Djikeng, the Hub’s senior scientist and technology manager.

Djikeng adds: ‘These scientists are some of Africa’s best, working on extremely important issues directly related to food security and income generation in the region. The Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund makes it possible to solve these regional issues, here in Africa.’

Projects include investigations of the spread of African swine fever, breeding improved varieties of orphan crops such as Enset (commonly called ‘false banana’), and conserving and better using Africa’s native livestock diversity, such as its indigenous chickens. These projects are being led by scientists from national programs and universities in sub‐Saharan Africa.

Last week Djikeng spoke on the BecA-ILRI Hub and livestock science at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Vancouver, Canada. See his presentation:

Read a related news item from the AAAS session

Visit the BecA-ILRI Hub website

See a recent slide presentation giving an overview of the BecA Hub research facilities and capacity building programs.

 

Devastating African disease of pigs gets new attention and funding

African Swine Fever Workshop, July 2011, Nairobi; from left: Raymond Rowland (Kansas State University), David Odongo (ILRI), Richard Bishop (ILRI), Maria-Jesus Munoz (CISA-INIA) and Jose-Manuel Vizcaino (Head of OIE ASF World Reference Centre Madrid) on a visit to the new BecA-ILRI laboratories (photo credit: ILRI/Edward Okoth).

New Agriculturist reported late last year on renewed research effort to tackle African swine fever, a devastating disease of pigs.

‘Causing up to 100 per cent mortality in previously unaffected animals, African Swine Fever (ASF) is a devastating disease of pigs. Endemic across much of Africa, the disease poses a wider threat to global food security, particularly in East Asia, where at least 50 per cent of the protein consumed is pork, much of it produced through small to medium-scale “backyard” enterprises.

‘Current control methods are by diagnosis and slaughter but this approach is difficult, expensive and often not practical for smallholder farmers. To better understand the complexities of the disease, a consortium of research and development organisations from around the world is implementing a range of approaches across Africa.

Whilst there are currently no formal economic estimates of the overall losses to ASF in Africa, an outbreak in Madagascar in 1998 killed half the country’s pig population (250,000 animals). During the last year, ASF outbreaks have also been reported in North Cameroon where over 100,000 animals may have been lost to the disease. In October 2010, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) received notification of the first ASF outbreak in Chad. . . .

‘A new injection of research funding will enable African scientists to obtain in-depth data to provide improved insight into the transmission and spread of ASF between African countries. AusAID is supporting Australia’s national science agency (CSIRO), in developing an institutional partnership with the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) hub.

‘The research team is working to better understand modes of viral transmission, between different geographical regions. . . .

“Collaboration and awareness of biosecurity measures between agencies and across borders is essential since ASF is a transboundary disease,” explains Dr Richard Bishop, project leader. “Through BecA and other mechanisms, we now have national veterinary laboratories increasingly working together across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi, to formulate joint control policies, an initiative that is critical to secure East Africa’s smallerholder pig industry,” he adds. . . .’

This work is funded by development partners including the Africa Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal-Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (CISA-INIA Spain), the Food and Agriculture Organization-Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (FAO-ECTAD) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

The BecA hub is hosted and managed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), where the leader of this African swine fever project, Richard Bishop, is a senior scientist.

Read the whole article at New Agriculturist: Renewed research effort to tackle African swine fever, Nov 2011.

 

Australia steps up support for research in Africa to reduce the continent’s heavy livestock disease burden

ILRI scientist Joerg Jores (right) tells German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited the ILRI-BecA labs in July 2011, about his livestock disease research (photo credit: ILRI/Njoroge).

‘Owning large livestock is like money in the bank for African farmers, but major diseases significantly threaten their future.

‘Among these are [peste des petits ruminants], a viral disease affecting sheep and goats, and [contagious bovine pleuropneumonia], adversely impacting on cattle, which are spreading rapidly in the developing world.

‘With three years of funding from AusAID and with science support from Australia’s CSIRO, research scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, are working on improved diagnostics and more effective vaccines for their control.

‘Jeffrey Mariner heads the development of a thermo-stable vaccine for PPR (known as small ruminant plague). The disease causes diarrhoea in sheep and goats and up to 50 per cent mortality in affected flocks.

‘He said a vaccine was in production which offered lifelong immunity but required refrigeration, giving it limited use in remote Africa.

‘Developing a vaccine effective at room temperature would significantly reduce the cost of vaccination and make it more accessible to pastoral areas of Africa, where many sheep and goats were run. . . .

‘A team of researchers is also investigating more effective control methods for [CBPP] which is estimated to cost 44 million Euros a year in the 12 African countries which represent the vast majority of outbreaks.

‘The flu-like disease was eradicated from most Western countries, including Australia, in the early 1970s, but it is still a large killer of cattle across central Africa and south into Tanzania and Zambia.

‘A live vaccine is available for [CBPP] but delivers only short time immunity with annual revaccinations required. It also needs refrigeration during transport and storage.

‘Project leaders Jan Naessens and  [Joerg] Jores said other continents had eradicated [CBPP] through test and slaughter programs, but Africa could not afford to take this approach due to food security issues. . . .’

Read the whole article in Stock Journal: Oz research tackles disease spread, 26 Dec 2011.

ILRI’s PPR and CBPP research projects both come under an Australian Government African Food Security initiative supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) through  the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, and in partnership with BecA, Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub (BecA), an initiative hosted and managed by ILRI in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

Segenet Kelemu: On the LiveSTOCK Exchange ‘hard seat’

During the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Brian Perry interviewed Segenet Kelemu, Director of the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) Hub.

Watch the video:

 

 

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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

 

‘Livestock is the Cinderella of agricultural development’–An interview with Jimmy Smith

A lengthy interview with ILRI’s new director general Jimmy Smith is the leading post on the home page of the Syngenta Foundation website in Nov 2011 (image credit: Syngenta Foundation; credit for photo of Jimmy Smith: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu).

‘Jimmy Smith is the new Director General of [the International Livestock Research Institute] in Nairobi. He recently talked to the Syngenta Foundation about smallholders, livestock research and animal diseases. A further topic was BecA, the biosciences center that the Foundation supports at ILRI.

Syngenta Foundation
‘How do you view the global importance of livestock?

Jimmy Smith
‘The world is at an interesting stage with regard to food and nutritional security! There is much concern about how farmers can feed two billion more people in 2050. And unfortunately we’re not starting from zero. We already have a billion who are hungry and poor. So we’re really talking about nourishing three billion more people. Livestock plays a very important role. It is also a major economic factor: globally, animal agriculture accounts for 40% of farm GDP. Over a billion people depend on livestock, directly or indirectly, for their livelihoods.

‘What do you see as the current great strengths of the International Livestock Research Institute?
‘ILRI has a huge capacity to help. We have been working to understand the circumstances in which people who live in poverty exist, trying to diagnose what will help them to emerge from poverty, including policy and technology. We have a strong cadre of scientists with a very important agenda. I hope ILRI will make a strong contribution to global food security. We’ve done so in the past, and will continue to do so.

‘What have been the key changes since you last worked there?
‘Just over ten years ago, when I was at ILRI, we were struggling to get anyone interested in agriculture. For most politicians, food came from supermarkets. The industrialized countries were awash with milk and butter. There were good reserves of rice and other food commodities. For many decision-makers, the battle to feed the world “had already been won”. So investments in agriculture plummeted—from 15% of overseas development assistance to 2%. But nowadays even the G8 talks about the importance of ag and feeding the world.

‘In terms of organizational changes since I left, ILRI has merged two centers and research cultures into a cohesive force. (The merger of the International Livestock Centre for Africa, ILCA, and the International Laboratory for Animal Diseases, ILRAD, was then in its infancy; it is now grown up). ILRI’s predecessors were essentially based in Africa, but it is a now much more of a global entity. . . .

‘Your declared commitment is “to take ILRI to even higher heights”. What is your vision for the organization, and how do you intend to get there?
‘That’s a tough question. We have the mandate to help feed the world adequately—which means not only sufficient quantities, but also sufficient nutritional quality and diversity of foods. We have to address this mandate as rapidly as possible. Clearly we need to continue our very strong research efforts.

‘But we must also link our research better to development, and translate our findings into real outcomes and impacts. We need to form stronger partnerships with development organizations. That is something the whole CGIAR could do much better over the next 5–10 years.

‘Unfortunately, just as we’ve finally got people’s attention for agriculture, there is a huge economic downturn in the West. Countries are concerned about their own budgets. So we’re going to have to work doubly hard to get our agenda funded. We need to become very effective communicators about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, what we can deliver and when. We need to communicate this not only at our scientific meetings but wherever we can get global attention. We have to become stronger ambassadors for what we do.

‘But at the bottom of it all is the science. We must be doing good science to deal with the very tough problems that the poor face in the developing world. It’s relatively easy to promote livestock development in an industrial setting. But to make it happen among small farmers is a very difficult challenge.

‘What is the importance to ILRI of its “Hosted Initiatives” such as [Biosciences eastern and central Africa, BecA]?
‘At its creation, ILRI had more bioscience facilities than any other center in Africa. The vision then was that biotech would become increasingly important in developing world agriculture. For instance, if we could breed a corn variety with good yields but only needing as little water as sorghum, then we would be taking a big step forward. This facility was seen as responding to some of the future needs of Africa and giving all Africans access to the platform. We’re working to attain that vision. . . .

‘ILRI’s focus is on livestock; BecA does much broader research. How do you see BecA’s work supporting the ILRI mandate?
‘We call ILRI a “livestock center”, but 50% or more of the world’s meat and milk comes from mixed crop livestock systems. Livestock and crop farming go hand in hand. In poor countries, livestock get most of their feed from left-over crops, and smallholders get much of their fertilizer from livestock. So, we’re a livestock center, but we know a lot about crops as well. So there is a closer fit with BecA than many people think.

‘BecA is dedicated to helping African agriculture with biosciences. I see BecA both as a platform for the outside, but also as one which helps drive ILRI science on the inside. If we’re talking about sequencing genomes, for example, the methodologies for crops and animals are quite similar. With good scientists working together on very broad, important challenges, we expect a lot of cross-fertilization. . . .

‘Among the first people you met after your appointment were Kenyan public sector representatives. Which topics in agriculture particularly interest them today?
‘Some of the discussion revolved around the drought in this region. But we also talked about how to elevate the visibility of livestock as a public topic. Livestock really is the Cinderella of agricultural development. In Kenya, livestock is an important part of the economy, not only in the pastoral areas but also in the highlands. Smallholder dairy farming has been a recent success story here. So our question was: how can we do more of this? . . .

‘Jimmy Smith grew up on a farm in his native Guyana, and also holds Canadian nationality. He received his PhD in Animal Sciences from the University of Illinois. From 1991-2001, Smith served at ILRI and its predecessor, the International Livestock Centre for Africa. As regional representative for West Africa, he directed research programs and built partnerships promoting smallholder livelihoods through animal agriculture. He also led an association of CGIAR centers working on the crop-livestock interface.

‘In his spare time, Jimmy Smith plays golf and listens to music. Asked about his favorite (livestock-based) food, he says: “In Guyana, with its many people of Indian origin, I became very fond of curries. In Canada, there is nothing as refreshing as the first BBQ of spring!”’

Read the full interview at the Syngenta Foundation website: Livestock is the Cinderella of agricultural development, 14 Nov 2011.

 

A focus on focus: Reining in an eclectic past to make a bigger difference

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Tom Randolph, an American agricultural economist recently appointed director of a new multi-centre CGIAR Research Program (3.7: Livestock and Fish), reflects on ILRI’s longstanding strategic path toward greater disciplinary integration to achieve greater coherence and impact.

An agricultural economist who came to East Africa to work at ILRI 13 years ago, Tom Randolph started his professional career ‘on the other side’—working as a policy wonk for crop research at the West African Rice Development Association (now AfricaRice), in Senegal and Côte D’Ivoire. Before that, he had spent six years teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire, where he picked up French (his undergraduate degree had been, naturally, Chinese) and an understanding of why food production matters. When he returned to America, he got himself into post-graduate agricultural programs at Cornell University, doing some (award-winning) doctoral research on the impacts of agricultural commercialization on child nutrition in Malawi.

During his years at ILRI, Randolph continued his eclectic career path, moving with apparent relative ease among topics as varied as smallholder competitiveness and the (uneasy) marriage of economics and epidemiology, but making fairly regular returns to topics on nutritional and health issues—from studies of the possible nutritional household benefits of keeping dairy cows, to transmission of zoonotic diseases between farm animals and their human keepers, to food safety in traditional ‘wet’ versus modern livestock markets, to the impacts of tick-borne diseases on the poor, to the effectiveness of animal health delivery systems for African smallholders.

Randolph appears to be most at home when deliberating the pro-poor utility of what is known in development jargon as ‘interventions’, whether they be employing a vaccine against tick-transmitted East Coast fever or drugs to treat tsetse-transmitted African animal trypanosomosis, deploying tsetse-trapping baits on pastoral cattle herds, or implementing alternative (typically wildly inappropriate) methods for controlling bird flu in Africa’s rural and urban environments.

In these deliberations, Randolph tends to takes sides—typically that of the small-scale food producer or hungry consumer awkwardly positioned somewhere between a rock and a hard place.

With such an eclectic background, it may at first be perplexing to find Randolph taking up directorship of a research program restricting itself to a tight focus on the relatively old-fashioned ambition of raising levels of livestock food production in a few resource-poor countries and livestock systems. But Randolph has left himself some flexibility in the name of his new program, which proclaims its ambitions to be ‘more meat, milk and fish by and for the poor’ (that English major of his did not go to waste).

So it appears we have a scientist of unusually diverse interests, talents, expertise and experience about to rein himself in, for—he says in this 6-minute interview—greater focus for the purpose of making greater impacts. It should be an interesting journey.

Watch the 6-minute interview of Tom Randolph:

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

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

 

‘Out of the lab and into the field–with our clients’: Phil Toye on getting the balance in animal health research right

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Phil Toye, an Australian immunologist who leads ILRI’s animal health research on development of diagnostics and vaccines for diseases of farm animals in Africa and other developing regions, reflects on the changes he’s seen at ILRI.

Toye first came to ILRI’s Nairobi campus in 1986, when it was then the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD). He left ILRAD in 1994 to join a medium-sized biotech  company in Australia. The Nairobi  institute he left behind was focused almost exclusively on developing vaccines against two devastating cattle diseases of Africa.

When Toye returned to the Nairobi campus in 2006, he experienced at first hand the ‘dramatic’ changes that had occurred in the intervening years. He came to an institute ‘with a much broader range of expertise, going well beyond molecular biologists and immunologists, to sociologists and economists, and to people who study and understand market dynamics and market access by the poor.

‘I think this gives ILRI a unique potential to look at the problems affecting small livestock owners, poor livestock owners, and developing practical solutions for their livestock problems,’ says Toye.

Among the achievements his team has made over the last five years, Toye cites that of building a much more balanced portfolio of activities. ‘Five years ago, our major activities concerned East Coast fever, in particular development of a vaccine against this disease, with a few smaller activities. Now we also work on African swine fever and contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia. What’s important is that we’re developing these technologies while looking beyond them; we’re looking at the social aspects of the livestock owners that these diseases affect, looking at the ability of these technologies to meet end-user needs, and at how the technologies could be effectively rolled out.

‘The other balance we brought to ILRI’s animal health portfolio was to increase the number of projects focused on more immediate impacts. An example is our work underpinning the roll out of an infection-and-treatment method of  vaccination against East Coast fever, a vaccine that is protecting the lives of cattle, particularly in northern Tanzania and also in Kenya and Uganda.

‘The development of a pen-side test for pig tapeworm is another more recent outcome of ours. And more recently still is the development of a thermo-stable vaccine—one that remains stable without the need for refrigeration—for a disease of sheep and goats known by its French name ‘peste des petite ruminants’.

‘A third achievement of our group is development of field-based activities. In the last five years, we initiated a project in Busia, in western Kenya, called ‘IDEAL,’ which is funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by the University of Edinburgh. For this project, we established a field laboratory in Busia. That laboratory has since been used by another Wellcome Trust-funded project, ‘People, Animals and Zoonoses’ Project, or PAZ for short, led by Eric Fevre, and more recently by a team doing substantial work on African swine fever led by Richard Bishop.

‘Such work is getting people out of the laboratory and interacting with our clients—poor livestock owners.

‘In future, we need to get the balance right between the amount of applied research we do, which has more immediate impacts, and undertaking more basic research to solve the more intractable problems. The latter work of course carries higher risk but also can have higher returns if we manage to develop solutions. That’s versus spreading ourselves too thin over several projects, where we don’t really have traction.

Our moving into the CGIAR Research Programs should give us even more focus and impacts in future.’

Watch a 5-minute filmed interview of Phil Toye:

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

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