ILRI presents at the Ecohealth 2012 conference

Farmer Ma Thi Puong feeds her pigs on her farm near the northern town of Mieu Vac, Vietnam. Recent studies show that Ecohealth approaches are useful in assessing the prevalence of emerging zoonotic diseases in Vietnam (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

EcoHealth is an emerging, multi-disciplinary field of study that examines how ecosystem changes affect human health so as to prevent new diseases from emerging.

International experts in this field met in Kunming, China from 15 to 18 October 2012 for the 4th biennial conference of the International Association for Ecology and Health (Ecohealth 2012). The theme of the conference was "Sustaining Ecosystems, Supporting Health".

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) was represented at Ecohealth 2012 by a team of scientists working on food safety, zoonoses and emerging infectious diseases in the Southeast Asia region. Below are links to a selection of their presentations:

Applying participatory approach to study zoonoses in provinces of South Vietnam: Experiences and lessons learned

Ecohealth approaches in prevention of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases in southern Vietnam: A retrospective study 2008-2011

Ecosystem approaches to the better management of zoonotic emerging infectious diseases in Southeast Asia (EcoZD): Inputs, throughputs and outputs

Field building leadership initiative: Advancing Ecohealth in Southeast Asia

Framing the problem of emerging zoonotic disease risk using a One Health approach

Hygienic practices and microbial contamination of small-scale poultry slaughterhouses in peri-urban areas, Hanoi, Vietnam

Mapping the interface of poverty, emerging markets and zoonoses

South East Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN): Lessons learned

Strategies for adopting EcoHealth theory and practice: Lessons from action‐research on zoonotic diseases in Southeast Asia

New ILRI website features research on agriculture associated diseases

Cattle coming in from the fields in the evening in Lhate Village, Chokwe, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). 

If you are interested in research on the links between agriculture and health, then check out the new AgHealth website, a web portal on research activities by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners on agriculture-associated diseases.

Prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases is one of four research components of the collaborative  CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition for Health, which is led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

The other three components are: value chains for enhanced nutrition; biofortification; and integrated agriculture, nutrition and health programs and policies.

ILRI leads the research component on prevention and control of agriculture-associated diseases, which has over 20 projects under four major research activities:

• Emerging infectious diseases
• Food safety
• Neglected zoonoses
• One Health/Ecohealth

For more information on ILRI's work on agriculture-associated diseases, please contact the research component leader Delia Grace (d.grace @ cgiar.org).

ILRI presents at the 13th conference of the International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics

Boran cattle at Kapiti Ranch, Kenya. Research by ILRI on the prevention and control of Rift Valley fever in Kenya featured during the 13th conference of the International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (photo credit: ILRI).

Some 12 scientists from the Markets, Gender and Livelihoods theme of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) attended the recently concluded 13th conference of the International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE13) where they presented research findings on various topics related to veterinary epidemiology and economics including prevention and control of zoonotic diseases, the economics of animal disease control interventions, risk assessment in informal food markets and participatory disease surveillance.

The ISVEE13 conference took place on 20-24 August 2012 in Maastricht, the Netherlands under the theme, Building Bridges – Crossing Borders, highlighting the importance of embracing multi-disciplinary approaches to solve research problems related to veterinary epidemiology and economics.

Below are links to the posters and PowerPoint presentations (in SlideShare)

Posters

• Assessment of exposure to Vibrio in shellfish consumed in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
• Classical swine fever: Incidence and impact on pig production system in Northeast India
• The contribution of agricultural research to managing zoonoses and foodborne diseases
• Key messages from Safe Food, Fair Food
• Evaluating a group based intervention for improving meat safety in a Nigerian wet-market
• Participatory disease surveillance: Cost effectiveness relative to passive surveillance in Kajiado County, Kenya
• Risk of exposure to Campylobacter through consumption of ready-to-eat roast beef and poultry meat in informal outlets in Arusha municipality
• Prerequisites for HACCP in poultry processing in Maputo, Mozambique

PowerPoint presentations

• Collaborative response to the 2010 foot and mouth disease outbreak in Miyazaki, Japan between veterinary and psychiatry experts
• Economic analysis of Rift Valley fever prevention and control options from a multi-sectoral perspective in Kenya
• Evaluation of participatory disease surveillance  for highly pathogenic avian influenza in Africa and rinderpest in Pakistan
• Newcastle disease vaccination: From technology to poverty reduction
• Participatory prevalence estimation: A pilot survey in Kenya
• Persistence of Rift Valley fever virus in East Africa
• Spatial-temporal analysis of the risk of Rift Valley fever in Kenya

For more information on ILRI’s research on animal health, food safety and zoonoses, please contact Delia Grace (d.grace @ cgiar.org)

ILRI in the news: Are environmental changes spreading Rift Valley and Lassa fevers?

Cattle wade in the Awash River in Ethiopia. Changes in farming practices and forest cover are thought to be affecting the transmission of diseases from animals to people  (photo credit: ILRI).

An opinion piece by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) veterinary epidemiologist Delia Grace in The Guardian's Poverty Matters Blog discusses ways in which environmental changes including farming practices, forest cover and reservoirs are thought to be affecting the spread of emerging infectious diseases that are transmitted from animals to people.

New study maps global hotspots of poverty and zoonotic diseases

Orma boran cattle crossing a river. A new study has mapped the global hotspots of poverty and human-animal diseases (photo credit: ILRI/R. Dolan).

A new study has mapped global hotspots of poverty and zoonoses (diseases transmissible between animals and humans) and found that a relatively small number of countries – notably India, Ethiopia, and Nigeria – have a disproportionate share of poor livestock keepers and zoonotic disease burden.

The study also revealed that the burden of human and animal diseases can be linked to just a few zoonoses. For this reason, targeting these zoonoses is likely to be an effective use of scarce resources.

These and other findings are contained in a new collaborative research report, Mapping of poverty and likely zoonoses hotspots, by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Institute of Zoology (UK) and the Hanoi School of Public Health in Vietnam.

The report to the UK Department of International Development (DFID) presents data and expert knowledge on poverty and zoonoses hotspots to inform prioritization of study areas on the transmission of disease in emerging livestock systems in the developing world, where prevention of zoonotic disease might bring greatest benefit to poor people.

In addition to mapping the hotspots of zoonoses and poverty, the study also identified gaps and opportunities for research to reduce the burden of disease for the zoonoses and regions identified.

These include: 

• better understanding of the implications for intensification and emerging markets on zoonoses; 
• models for zoonoses control in emerging markets; 
• ecosystem models for management of zoonoses with a wildlife interface; 
• improvement of surveillance for existing and new diseases; 
• understanding the impacts multiple burdens of zoonoses in order to better allocate resources; and
• technologies and innovation for detection, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and response. 

Download the report.

New research consortium to provide knowledge for effective One Health approaches to disease control in Africa

Orma Boran cattle crossing a river in Kenya. The new Dynamic Drivers of Disease Consortium will integrate understanding of zoonoses, ecosystems and wellbeing (photo credit: ILRI/Dolan).

Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa is a new Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA)-funded research program that seeks to integrate our understanding of zoonoses, ecosystems and wellbeing.  The 3.5 year program runs until July 2015 and focuses on four emerging or re-emerging zoonotic diseases in four diverse African ecosystems:

• Henipavirus infection in Ghana
• Rift Valley fever in Kenya
• Lassa fever in Sierra Leone
• Trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe

Its innovative, holistic approach brings together natural and social scientists to build an evidence base designed to inform global and national policy players seeking effective, integrated approaches to control and check disease outbreaks.

The Drivers of Disease Consortium comprises over 30 researchers working in 17 institutes across Africa, Europe and the US and includes researchers in the environmental, biological, social, political, and human and animal health sciences. They will generate new knowledge on:

• Ecosystem change
• How ecology and people’s interactions with ecosystems affect disease emergence
• Disease transmission and exposure

The partner institutes are:

• ESRC STEPS Centre, Brighton, UK
• University of Cambridge, UK
• Institute of Zoology, London
• University of Edinburgh
• University College, London
• Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, University of Ghana
• International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya
• Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
• University of Nairobi
• Kenema Government Hospital, Sierra Leone
• Njala University, Sierra Leone
• Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Zambia
• University of Zambia
• Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Zimbabwe
• University of Zimbabwe
• Stockholm Resilience Centre
• Tulane University, USA

The programme is funded by a £3.2m grant from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).