ILRI News

Call for papers from research and development actors.
 
This November, in Kampala, internationally recognized experts on innovation systems will share their latest thinking with agricultural researchers and development partners. The Innovation Africa Symposium is now calling for papers and exhibit contributions. The closing date for receipt of abstracts for the Innovation Africa Symposium has been extended from 15 August 2006 to 1 September 2006.

Contributions are invited in two forms:

1. Symposium papers that draw on diverse fields and disciplines of the social, agricultural and natural resource sciences, and present good practice in studying and enhancing the process of innovation for effective agricultural research, development and education.
2. Marketplace exhibits that can be in the form of posters, videos, slides, photographs, websites, maps, group interactions (e.g. participatory theatre) and other lively ways of showing how work on innovation systems is being conducted in Africa and elsewhere. The marketplace will feature the creativity and experience of farmers, farmer organisations and other local entrepreneurs and institutions.

Abstracts for papers and proposals for marketplace exhibits should be submitted by 1 September 2006 to the Innovation Africa Symposium Secretariat (innovationafrica@cgiar.org) with copies to p.sanginga@cgiar.org and ann.waters-bayer@etcnl.nl.

More details about guidelines for abstracts, deadlines for papers, symposium costs and registration can be found in the Symposium Brochure and the Call for Contributions on the Symposium website: www.innovationafrica.net and are also available below.

Symposium Brochure (PDF file; 340 KB)
Call for Contributions (PDF file; 62 KB)

This symposium is organized by five organizations: the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, Colombia), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, the division of International Service for National Agricultural Research, Ethiopia), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, Africa), the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction (IIRR, Kenya), and the NGO PROLINNOVA (PROmoting Local INNOVAtion, Netherlands).

A new initiative aims to improve health, reduce malnutrition and food insecurity and promote pro-poor agricultural development through closer collaboration between the agriculture and health sectors.

Research at the crossroads of agriculture and health conducted by the 15 centers of the Consultative Group on International Research (CGIAR) has been building and increasing in recent years. The CGIAR centers have a long tradition of working on nutrition, and now conduct a wide range of health-related work in the context of agriculture, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, food safety and the health effects of pesticide use.

Since 2004, steps have been taken to co-ordinate the health-related work conducted by the 15 centers. This included the founding of a committee of the directors general of the centers, a stock-take of the centers existing health-related work, a workshop on agriculture-health research in the CGIAR and the publication of a series of briefs on ‘Understanding the Linkages between Agriculture and Health’.

In 2006, the Alliance Executive of the CGIAR endorsed the concept of a research platform on Agriculture and Health as a way to move forward.

The ‘Resource Guide on CGIAR Research on Agriculture-Health Linkages’, hosted on the website of the International Food and Policy Research Institute, is a portal to the work conducted in this area by different CGIAR centers, showing who is doing what on health.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) now has a webpage on IFPRI's website highlighting the following areas of ILRI's research in relation to human health:

Livestock keeping and human health
As part of its People, Livestock and the Environment Theme, ILRI conducts research to protect and enhance the physical human capital of the poor by developing strategies to reduce health risks and improve nutritional benefits associated with livestock keeping. Other projects focused on the use of water and feed for livestock also consider human health impacts.

Impact of livestock production on human health and nutrition
ILRI is working to improve understanding of the links between livestock keeping and the health and nutrition of poor people, particularly those engaging in smallholder livestock production and marketing. Activities under way include field studies, literature reviews and explorations of the ways in which livestock keeping might benefit the care of people with HIV/AIDS.

Zoonotic diseases
Poor people in developing countries have a high risk of exposure to zoonoses—diseases transmitted from animals to people. ILRI is helping to bridge the artificial divide between animal and human health. With over 75% of human infections having a zoonotic origin, the need to examine the epidemiological relationships between pathogens and their animal and human hosts is paramount. ILRI is putting specifically focusing on a major neglected zoonoses, Cysticercosis, a highly complex disease affecting both people and pigs. ILRI is participating in a Cysticercosis Working Group of Eastern and Southern Africa (CWGESA), which promotes effective communication, collaboration and coordination of integrated research and control activities aimed at combating cysticercosis. CWGESA and ILRI have recently developed a Cysticercosis Prevention Poster which is currently available in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans. This poster is being used for a rapid information campaign in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa where a neurocysticercosis outbreak among children has been reported.

Livestock, water quality, and human health
ILRI has recently initiated limited research on water-mediated impacts on human health and on INRM approaches to reducing health risks. Most of this research falls within ILRI’s collaboration with the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food and the CGIAR Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management and Agriculture. Key issues include the transmission of water-borne pathogens such as coliform bacteria, cryptosporidium, and Fasciola that result from animal manure contaminating domestic water supplies and where simple remedial interventions are feasible

Wastewater is increasingly used for irrigation of fodder crops that fuel the growing urban and peri-urban dairy production in mega cities such as Hyderabad (India) and Faisalabad (Pakistan). ILRI in collaboration with IWMI and Indian and Pakistani public health institutions and municipal water authorities is investigating the relationship between water – soil – produce quality (fodder and milk) to assess the chain of possible contaminations (heavy metals, nitrate, parasites) and ultimately the hazards to producers (farmers, dairy producers) and consumers of livestock products in these urban areas.

Livestock feed quality and human health
Aflatoxin in milk – a possible hazard to human health: ILRI in collaboration with ICRISAT is investigating aflatoxin contamination of fodder (mainly crop residues) as a source of aflatoxin content in milk. In selected sites in Andhra Pradesh, India, close to 50% of the milk samples contained non-permissible levels of aflatoxin. At the same time, only one of the collected fodder samples (groundnut cake) contained non-permissible levels of alflatoxin. Aflatoxin in milk can clearly present a health hazard to the consumer.

Food safety associated with livestock and livestock products
This research program has focused on identifying the public health risks associated with the marketing of unpasteurized milk, with an emphasis on developing policies and technologies for improved quality and safety without jeopardizing market access for the poor. An outcome of this work has been changes in government policies towards more acceptance of raw milk marketing in several East African countries, based on the identified low risks and high dependence of resource poor people on these markets. This work is being expanded, in cooperation with IFPRI, to examine the marketing of other livestock and livestock products, particularly in South Asia. Studies provide policy-relevant analyses of the risks and economic benefits to poor farmers, market agents, and resource-poor consumers.

Demand for better quality and safe food is increasing among urban consumers, especially among affluent ones. This poses threats to the market opportunities of smallholder producers who often are unable to access technology, inputs and services to produce high quality products demanded by the market chains serving high-end consumers. ILRI research is trying to understand the nature of quality and safety attributes demanded by consumers, their willingness to pay for such attributes and how smallholders may respond to these through participation in market chains.

Vaccines, diagnostics and disease resistance
ILRI research on livestock vaccines has direct and indirect links to medical vaccine and diagnostic research. One aspect of this work involves host functional genomics as it relates to livestock diseases that can be transmitted to humans.

A project investigating resistance to trypanosomosis in cattle is shedding light on some of the basic questions of disease resistance, which may have implications for human medical treatment. ILRI researchers first identified several regions of the cattle genome in which genes contributing to resistance or susceptibility must lie. They then identified genes within a part of the bovine genome that affects anemia, a characteristic of the disease. Remarkably, significant differences between cattle breeds that are susceptible and resistant to the disease were found in one of the candidate genes. Such a result makes it possible that the gene in question is responsible for the difference in susceptibility to anemia in the two breeds. This is now being further investigated. More recent results of this trypanosomosis genomics research appear to have implications for medical research on cholesterol. For more information, contact ILRI’s Steve Kemp at s.kemp@cgiar.org

Initiatives and Networks
Urban Harvest Programme
ILRI is a member of Urban Harvest, a CGIAR initiative to use the collective knowledge and technologies of the CGIAR Centers to strengthen urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) practiced by the poor.

System-wide Initiative on Malaria in Agriculture (SIMA)
ILRI backstops a CGIAR-wide initiative addressing malaria in agricultural communities. The System-wide Initiative on Malaria in Agriculture (SIMA) focuses the combined skills and abilities of the agricultural and health research communities, government agencies and community-based organizations. Water- and land-use and crop- and livestock-production practices are studied across a range of agro-ecosystems in Africa to identify farming activities that encourage and discourage the breeding of the mosquito vector or alter the transmission of the disease. Research-based guidelines and tools are developed and tested for use by poor communities and the non-governmental organizations and governments that serve them.

Outreach and Events
CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food
ILRI, IWMI and the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food is inviting individuals and organizations located in any of the ten riparian countries of the Nile River Basin to submit short well-written case studies describing traditional or contemporary innovations in technologies, in community and household practices, and in policies that result in better management of water and livestock resources. Relevant topics include the prevention of transmission of waterborne and water related zoonotic and animal diseases such as Cryptosporidiosis and Fasciolosis. This contest is offering USD 1000 for first prize, USD 500 for second prize and USD 250 for third prize. For more information, contact ILRI’s Don Peden at d.peden@cgiar.org

CGIAR Science Award for Promising Young Scientist
In 2005, ILRI scientist Simon Graham won the CGIAR Science Award for Promising Young Scientist for research leading to the development of a sensitive and robust system for identifying vaccine candidate molecules from Theileria parva that causes East Coast fever, a fatal disease of cattle in sub-Saharan Africa. Graham’s research may also contribute to ongoing efforts to control tropical theileriosis, a cattle disease which puts 250 million cattle around the world at risk. Furthermore, by using genomics to understand and fight T. parva, scientists may make advances against related parasites that cause malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases in which killer T cells also play a role in immunity. And because T. parva launches a cancer-like illness inside the white blood cells of cattle, it may provide a model system for understanding the mechanics of cancer biology.

Visit http://www.ifpri.org/themes/aghealth/aghealthrg.asp for the resource guide on IFPRI's website.

African trypanosomosis is a deadly disease that affects millions of people and livestock in sub-Saharan Africa. Will this disease decrease in importance over the coming years, or will it continue its devastation?
 
The current and future importance of African trypanosomosis was one of many issues discussed by a group of experts from veterinary, medical and associated professions who met at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi in early June for two back-to-back scientific workshops. The Doyle Foundation workshop was held 6-7 June 2006 followed by the Wellcome Trust-funded Host-Pathogen workshop 8-9 June.
 

New science can lead to new opportunities, particularly for building synergies between approaches to animal and human forms of  African trypanosomosis. Considerable work is being undertaken by a wide range of specialists – but this work is often undertaken in isolation of other experts in other disciplines. As the number of zoonotic diseases increases, the lines between medical and veterinary sciences will become increasingly blurred and there are many opportunities to share knowledge within and between disciplines and sciences.

The Doyle Foundation Chair Gabrielle Persley opened the first workshop with the following observations: ‘African trypanosomosis is a neglected disease. It is endemic in large areas of sub-Saharan Africa and causes great losses and hardship. This meeting is the beginning of a broader consultation that aims to identify the researchable issues and facilitate new multidisciplinary partnerships that can contribute to improving the well-being and productivity of people and livestock in Africa.’

Terry Pearson from the University of Victoria, in Canada, referred to African trypanosomosis as a sleeping dragon. ‘It sleeps for long periods, then reawakens and flares into an epidemic. There have been two major sleeping sickness epidemics in the past 120 years, each of which killed nearly a million people. Recently, the Sleeping Dragon has re-awoken to create yet another epidemic, with about 60 million people in sub-Saharan Africa at risk.’

A May 2006 article in PLoSMedicine1 pointed out that neglected tropical human diseases, as a group, have joined the ranks of the ‘big three’ (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) to create a 21st century ‘gang of four’. African trypanosomosis is one of five neglected diseases that as a group are responsible for 400,000 human deaths annually. Each year, trypanosomosis causes approximately 48,000 human deaths and the loss of 1.5 million life-years due to premature disability. In addition, Africa each year loses up to US$5 billion due to animal trypanosomosis.

Who will slay Africa’s Sleeping Dragon?
More than 50 scientists from a wide range of specialties participated in the workshops, to discuss a common interest – the elusive African trypanosome parasite, the cause of the disease.

The Doyle Foundation workshop was attended by twenty young local scientists. Among these was Deo Mdumu Birungi, a graduate fellow from the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture studying for a PhD in animal breeding and genetics at ILRI in Nairobi: ‘This has been a fantastic opportunity. It was exciting to spend two days with such a distinguished group. Normally young scientists don’t get to participate in such workshops. I have learned so much. It has encouraged me to think deeper about my area.’

It was not just the young scientists who benefited. Jayne Raper from New York Medical School stated: ‘I have been studying trypanosomes for over twenty years. This was the first time that I have had to think about the livestock angle! It has been totally stimulating. I will go back home with new perspectives and strongly urge that more interdisciplinary meetings like this be held.’

John Donelson, from the University of Iowa, and Chair of the Wellcome Trust-funded Trypanosomosis Consortium workshop, said: ‘This has been hugely educational for all. There has been a superb mix of people and building of synergies. Most importantly, there have been some fantastic outputs that have exceeded all our expectations.’

In her concluding remarks, the Doyle Foundation’s Chair Gabrielle Persley said:  ‘Although these meetings are only the first step, we have already witnessed the exploration of potential new partnerships. The experts in attendance believe that African trypanosomosis continues to be important and that better and more integrated controls need to be devised and delivered. To continue the dialogue, we will be organizing further consultations – our virtual consultation will begin immediately and a further meeting is planned for late 2006, where additional experts in relevant scientific areas will be invited to participate.’

Further information
Copies of all presentations from the Doyle Foundation meeting are available at:
http://www.biosciencesafrica.org/Biosciences_Africa_DF_Tryps_Workshop_June2006.htm

The Doyle Foundation African Trypanosomosis Workshop Program

Wellcome Trust-funded African Trypanosomosis Host Pathogen Consortium: Information Sheet

Terry Pearson’s Opening Address: The Long Journey of the African Trypanosome

Film Shows produced by Doyle Foundation/Clare Kemp:

Tom Randolph interviews John McDermott on African trypanosomosis

Doyle Foundation Chair, Gabrielle Persley describes the importance of African trypanosomosis

Recent Related Articles/News

The problem with African trypanosomosis
This is perhaps best summed up in the words of an African subsistence farmer, quoted by one of the presenters at a recent International Scientific Council for Trypanosomiasis Research and Control meeting:

‘My child is dying of malaria, but it is African trypanosomiasis that is killing us.’

Source: World Health Organisation. Workers on African trypanosomiasis unite. TDR News. No 76. March 2006. Read the full article at: http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/tdrnews/news76/tryps.htm.

New research highlights the importance of treating cattle in the battle against sleeping sickness
According to an article in New Agriculturist, recent research findings suggest a new approach to tackling sleeping sickness that could reverse a deteriorating situation in Uganda.

‘As well as focusing on the disease in people, we could also treat cattle. Treatment of the disease in cattle is relatively simple and cost-effective with drugs and insecticides, which can eliminate the disease from the animal population and therefore prevent its spread.

‘Field trials have recently been completed which suggest that, if 86% of cattle were treated with drugs that kill the rhodesiense parasites, we could eliminate the animal reservoir. If there are no parasites in cattle, there will be no new cases of human sleeping sickness.

Source: New Agriculturist. The need to control sleeping sickness. Perspective by Dr William Olaho-Mukani. 1 July 2006.

References:
1Hotez PJ, Molyneux DH, Fenwick A, Ottesen E, Sachs SE, Sachs JD. (2006). Incorporating a rapid-impact package for neglected tropical diseases with programs for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. PLoS Med 3(5): e102.