At more than 50 million animals, Ethiopia's livestock population is the largest in Africa and the eighth largest in the world. But livestock productivity in Ethiopia remains low. Namukolo Covic, the ILRI Director General's representative to Ethiopia, CGIAR Ethiopia country convener and the CGIAR regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa, talks with Shahida Hussein, an ILRI communications officer, about the livestock challenges that are facing Ethiopia, ideas to raise productivity, and hopes for the future.

Across the world, millions of people eat a 'hidden meat' - bushmeat, or wild meat. But handling or eating bushmeat can pose a higher risk of transmitting zoonotic disease - diseases which affect both animals and humans. This episode looks at a pioneering study led by scientist Ekta Patel of ILRI that investigates how people understand that risk - and whether that understanding changes eating habits. 

Read more: 

New study assesses disease risk perceptions of wild meat at the border of Kenya and Tanzania

Is there a conflict between supporting animal welfare, and supporting the wellbeing of the world's poor? Can we talk about animal welfare in the same way in the global North and South? Or are there important moral distinctions to be made? 

To explore these questions we're joined by Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher and bioethicist, Rebecca Doyle, who leads ILRI’s efforts on animal welfare, and Michel Dione, a senior scientist in Animal Health at ILRI.

Further reading:

Peter Singer:

One of the world’s most controversial philosophers explains himself - Vox

Peter Singer's website

Rebecca Doyle:

ILRI profile

Rebecca Doyle's website

Michel Dione:

ILRI profile

ILRI and animal welfare:

One Health Brief no. 5 - Keeping livestock healthy and well cared for improves animal, human, environment and economic health

This episode was written by Madison Spinelli, ILRI

In the second of our episodes featuring writer Roger Thurow, we hear about what inspired his most recent book, 'The First 1000 Days'. What exactly is this crucial period of life - and what is its impact on the rest of a child's life?

Malnutrition is a terrible burden to bear, but as Thurow warns, it ultimately affects us all.

Further reading and listening:

• Roger Thurow | The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
• Listen to our podcast featuring child nutrition expert Lora Iannotti from Season 2 of The Boma here

Script written by David Aronson

Roger Thurow is a senior fellow for global agriculture and food policy for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He writes about many of the same issues that animate the work at the International Livestock Research Institute - nutrition, development, hunger, and aid for subsistence farmers.

As a writer, Thurow conveys what the lives of the poor are like in vivid, granular detail. We hear from him about what inspired him to focus on these issues - and how he has seen the lives of smallholder farmers change for the better.

Further reading

• Roger Thurow | The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
• One Acre Fund

Script written by David Aronson

Where does digital technology fit in with livestock farming? Can flying animal vaccines in by drone to remote regions help address gender inequality? Find out on this special episode of The Boma!

In this podcast, we hear about the barriers to digital technology and farming difficulties that women face, then follow how ILRI and the CGIAR are working to close that divide from the example of an innovative vaccine-delivery project in Ghana.

We hear from Agnes Loriba, program lead and Ghana project manager at CARE International, Immaculate Omondi, a gender research economist at ILRI, and Nicoline de Haan, lead of the CGIAR GENDER Impact platform. How do they identify 'gender gaps' in farming and communities - and what does it take to close them?

Read more here

The Livestock Vaccine Innovation Fund is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Global Affairs Canada (GAC), and Canada’s International Development Research Centre

Script written by Annabel Slater

 Every director general knows, at the time they are appointed, exactly when they're supposed to leave because their appointment letter tells them so, says Jimmy Smith, who has been the director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for the past 11 years. But "I didn't realise how difficult it would be to say goodbye to ILRI and the staff."

In this special episode of The Boma, Jimmy reflects on his time as director general, the state of the livestock sector, and what the future may hold. 

"You guys are coming when we have really suffered, when we have lost half of our herd and also when the vultures are descending from the sky."

So said a Kenyan pastoralist at a meeting about drought response.  What is being done to anticipate drought, rather than to deal with the consequences?  In this episode we look at the effects of the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa, with 17 million people facing hunger and a fifth rainy season on the way.

Experts from the Jameel Observatory, including Guyo Roba, head of the observatory, affiliate researcher Gary Watmough, and Stephen Mutiso from Save the Children, explain how we can hone drought preparation through collaboration and action. 

Jameel Observatory
Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET)
A Dangerous Delay 2: The Cost of Inaction - a report by Jameel Observatory, Save the Children, and Oxfam

Scripted by Madison Spinelli, Princeton-In-Africa Fellow at ILRI.

In 2014 a survey found that a quarter of children under 5 in Siaya County, western Kenya, were stunted. Stunting creates lifelong, chronic health issues and worse mental development. Better nutrition can help avoid stunting, but can be a struggle for families that are already lacking money, resources and access to support.

What if there was a way to empower families by improving a simple resource they already have? Such as chickens, a small but ubiquitous livestock in rural communities. But proving this is not so easy. In our new episode of The Boma, we dive into the questions and answers to see if there really is a link between poultry and children's health.

The study this episode reports on was a finalist for the 2022 Cozzarelli Prize, an award that recognizes outstanding contributions to the scientific disciplines represented by the National Academy of Sciences.

Read more:

• About Siaya County
• Newcastle disease is the main cause of mortality in rural chicken flocks
• 7.5 million Kenyans in rural communities live on less than USD 2 a day
• Vaccinating chickens against Newcastle disease improves the growth of children in rural Kenyan communities
• The 2022 Cozzarelli Prize

Scripted by Annabel Slater, Digital Media Specialist at ILRI.

Droughts have always occurred in the Horn of Africa, but in the past few years they have begun happening much more frequently. 

An award-winning scheme of index-based livestock insurance could provide a lifeline for millions of pastoralists whose livelihoods are affected by drought. There is no need to wait for a drought to become severe, for animals to die, or people to starve. Instead this scheme can help resilent pastoralists deal with climate shocks before they happen.

Presenters Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton take a look at how the insurance works, and why it is needed.

The index-based livestock insurance project at ILRI is run with the help of a variety of partners, including the World Bank, Cornell University, UC Davis, and the Kenyan government.

This episode features a clip from a video interview with Guyo Malicha Roba by The Elephant.

Learn more:

After 10 years in Kenya and Ethiopia, are we ready to scale up livestock insurance in the Horn of Africa?

ILRI

Drought Management in Kenya Should Pivot from Crisis to Risk Management

The Elephant

Many countries locked down in the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic, trying to protect the public from infections and illness. But a new wave of research is examining how containment measures came with costs, too. Particularly for the 1 in 12 people in the world who are also smallholder farmers, responsible for producing most of the food in low- or middle-income countries.

Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton hear from ILRI scientist Jim Hammond, whose team interviewed nearly 10,000 farmers across nine low-income countries. Hammond reveals the lasting effect of pandemic restrictions on these farmers, and what countries need to do in the future to shield these farmers from falling into crisis.

Read the full report here.

"I’ve learned that using the simplest words doesn’t make you less of a scientist. It can actually make you a great scientist."

Sarah Nyanchera Nyakeri is an MSc fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute where she is researching the development of a better vaccine for contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP). She is also the winner of the recent ILRI CapDev challenge which seeks to find the best science communicators amongst the next generation of livestock researchers. She is also the host and producer of 'The Vulnerable Scientist' podcast which focuses on scientists' stories about their daily lives, work, and how they got to where they are. 

From one podcaster to others, Elliot Carleton and Brenda Coromina talk to Sarah to find out more about her podcast, and what it unexpectedly reveals about being a scientist. This special interlude episode touches on failures, being a woman in science, role models in science, and more. Don't forget to check out Sarah's podcast afterwards!

In the early 1900s, cattle herds across South Africa were devastated by a new livestock disease. Today, more than 100 years later, that disease is called East Coast fever, and despite scientists' best efforts to control it, the disease continues to devastate cattle and livelihoods across the dozen African countries where it is endemic. 

In this episode, presenters Elliot Carleton and Brenda Coromina speak with ILRI scientist Vish Nene as they examine what makes East Coast fever such a devastating disease, and more importantly, how modern vaccines may be able to address it. 

Little is known about how bacteria spread through different sections of a city. Now the most extensive study of its kind uncovers some critical answers of how bacteria move through Nairobi, lessons that could have implications for the wider world. After all, what is being seen in Nairobi today could easily be in New York or Paris by tomorrow morning.

Presenters Elliot Carleton and Brenda Coromina hear from ILRI scientists Dishon Muloi and Eric Fèvre as they find out how urbanisation could produce the next disease outbreak.

Read more:
A new model of pathogen transmission in developing urban landscapes

Music: Flute Song by Moby courtesy of mobygratis.com

If you're not a researcher, why should you care about science? Why does science communication matter to research?

In the second of a two-parter featuring ILRI Emeritus Fellow Susan MacMillan, Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton question what the difference is between science communication, and science advocacy, finding out how the International Livestock Research Institute's (ILRI) communications have changed over the years, and why. 

"We're not science for science's sake," says Susan of ILRI. "We have a mission. We have to go further than just the science."

They discuss how social media can be a positive force for science, and what science writing has in common with storytelling. It's not enough to simply put the information out in easy-to-understand terms. Science communication is a big responsibility, and can have a tremendous impact on the world. So whose voice should be heard - and who should be doing the storytelling? 

Susan MacMillan knows why livestock matter. An ILRI Emeritus Fellow, she has led public awareness and advocacy communications at ILRI for nearly 33 years.

In the latest episode of The Boma, Elliot Carleton and Brenda Coromina find out how Susan went from being an Ohio native who had never even glimpsed a living cow, to becoming one of the most passionate advocates for livestock farming in developing countries today. In a wide-ranging and informative talk she explains how the modern stigma against livestock farming in some countries was born from good intentions, her respect for vegetarians and vegans, and why livestock matter for countless people in the world today and tomorrow. Listen to the episode to find out what Susan thinks the future of livestock will look like.

And listen to Susan Macmillan and Lora Iannotti go deeper into the nutritional benefits of livestock-derived foods in Season 1 Episode 6 of The Boma: 'Animal-source foods for people and the planet'.

Further reading:
ILRI's Jimmy Smith on the livestock controversies holding back greater use of milk, meat and eggs to nourish the undernourished
Livestock and livelihoods
Livestock and the rural poor

Music: Atakte 3 by Moby courtesy of mobygratis.com

Livestock provide vital nutrition and income for numerous households in developing countries. And it's often women who do the bulk of the work caring for the animals. But this doesn't mean they reap the benefits. In many communities, women are excluded from making management decisions about livestock, like when to sell them, or how to treat them. They also don't get to control the income that the livestock generate, or the valuable livestock products made. And this is particularly the case for the larger, more valuable animals, like cattle. 

How can livestock farming help build gender equality in such communities, instead of repeating traditional and unequal gender norms?  ILRI’s research is part of many worldwide efforts to empower women and girls. The second season of The Boma kicks off with an episode for International Women's Day 2022, taking a close look at ILRI's Women in Business project, which empowers women to benefit from chicken farming in Ethiopia and Tanzania. 

Presenters and Princeton-in-Africa Fellows Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton talk to Alessandra Galiè, Gender Team Leader at ILRI, Upendo Ramadhani Simba, a university graduate of animal sciences who began as a chicken vendor through the project, and Adolf Jeremiah, a research field coordinator at ILRI with a background on gender and youth programming.

There's a growing problem across the world, one that could make keeping livestock outdoors almost impossible in just a few decades, and jeopardize the health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people. 

That problem is heat stress, caused by rising temperatures and global warming. It's a serious problem which is already affecting livestock health and welfare, particularly in outdoor farming, and subtropical or tropical zones. In the last episode of this season, presenters Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton hear from Philip Thornton, ILRI scientist and one of the top 50 most influential climate scientists worldwide. He warns about the consequences of living in a world where two-thirds of all cattle could be at risk of heat stress, along with many other livestock species. 

What options are there for mitigation and adaptation? And whose responsibility will it be to avert disaster? Listen to The Boma to find out!

As long as we have had ways to destroy microbes, microbes have been fighting back. Alexander Fleming, who discovered the world's first antibiotic, penicillin, warned that misusing antibiotics could lead to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

He was right. Today AMR can be found worldwide and is a serious problem. If it is not tackled now, by 2050 one person will die every three seconds because of AMR.

The Boma presenters Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton explore how resistance develops, the scale of the problem, and why it can be found in the most surprising places. Today's episode features Arshnee Moodley, the leader of the Antimicrobial Resistance Hub at ILRI. She talks us through what action countries need to take against AMR to avert a grim future, and why each country needs a different plan. 

High-income countries can apply resources and large investments against AMR in ways which low-income countries can't. But AMR isn't just a high income problem or a low income problem. With the ease at which it can spread around the Earth, it's everybody's problem. 

Livestock farmers use antibiotics to treat infections in their animals, and may also use them as a preventative. But overuse of antibiotics can create 'superbugs' - antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria which threaten human lives and wellbeing, as well as those of livestock animals.

Presenters Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton explore one approach that ILRI scientists are taking to combat the AMR problem - phages. These 'bacteria-eating' viruses, which naturally exist in the environment, are being studied by ILRI scientists to develop an alternative treatment to antibiotics. They hear from 'phage hunters' Angela Makumi and Nicholas Svitek about how phages work, what makes them different from antibiotics, and what it will take to make phage therapy a reality.

Could phages become our future weapon of choice against bacteria?

Read more:

Phages: The viruses that offer a sustainable alternative to antibiotic treatment in livestock

As the pandemic pushes global malnutrition to rates not seen in more than a decade, how can livestock products like milk, meat and eggs help? And how do we weigh the nutritional benefits of livestock, particularly in the developing world, against the fact that livestock can be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions?

In this episode of The Boma, presenters Brenda Coromina and Elliot Carleton talk to Lora Iannotti, a specialist in child and maternal nutrition, as they explore why context and food choices matter when it comes to avoiding malnutrition.

Award-winning holistic farmer Emma Naluyima explains how integrated farming techniques can reduce the carbon footprint of livestock farming, and gives her vision for how children can become responsible global citizens of the future.

Finally, Susan MacMillan, Emeritus Fellow at ILRI, describes her dream future for livestock in a more equitable and sustainable world.

-----

Criticism of animal farming in the west risks health of world's poorest - The Guardian, September 2021

New report from UN Nutrition untangles risks and benefits of food from livestock for sustainable healthy diets, focusing on challenges linked to both abundance and scarcity - ILRI, June 2021

If sub-Saharan Africa produces just 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the livestock sector just a fraction of those, why should the governments of these countries be concerned?

Because there's much more to the story. The intensity of the emissions is higher in these countries than in others, and the livestock sector is growing in size every year. In the second part of a mini-series on climate change and livestock, presenter Tim Offei-Addo speaks to ILRI scientists Polly Ericksen and Klaus Butterbach-Bahl to find out what makes these emissions so important, and what can be done about it.

Ericksen and Butterbach-Bahl explain how ILRI helps to collect data about greenhouse gas emissions in sub-Saharan Africa, equipping countries with the means to tell an accurate story of their climate emissions to the international community. 

And they warn that as developed countries vilify livestock as a major producer of greenhouse gases, this could prevent crucial investments in livestock in the developing world. Investing in livestock in sub-Saharan Africa could help mitigate emissions, help poor farmers earn a livelihood and produce more food. Is there a place for livestock to be part of the solution, and not the problem, for climate change?

Scripted by Tim Offei-Addo

How do we intensify livestock to feed the global south, but also mitigate climate emissions? Is it possible to increase livestock productivity while decreasing its environmental cost?

Tim Offei-Addo returns to the Boma to talk to three ILRI  researchers - Esther Kihoro, Todd Crane and Renee Bullock - who want the world to know that to begin to answer that question we must first understand the people who are doing the farming.

It's not enough, they say, to think up ways to reduce climate emissions from livestock. What's good for the crop farmer who needs cattle for draught will not be good for the roaming Maasai herder. If dairy production becomes more commercialised, what will happen to the women who provide so much the labor in household farms? And cattle farming is more than a means of producing milk to many people - it is embedded in their culture, essential for status, marriage, finances, and many more purposes.

Livestock systems vary greatly around the world and can enhance or harm the environment depending on how they are managed. Listen to this two-part mini-series looking at the tricky relationship between livestock and climate change.

ILRI's work on climate change adaptation and mitigation

Environment news and research

Programme for climate-smart livestock systems

Scripted by Tim Offei-Addo

One Health is traditionally defined as the collaboration of several disciplines working locally, nationally and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment -- but what exactly does this mean, and what does it look like in practice? 

Today’s episode of The Boma features food expert Hung Nguyen, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at ILRI. Hung takes us through how his childhood in a rural area of north Vietnam sparked his interest in livestock, public health, and then One Health. One of the challenges to the One Health approach remains the collaboration of different sectors, something that Vietnam has been unusually successful at managing. Hung provides insight into Vietnam as a case study for successfully integrating One Health, and One Health as a core consideration for global health concerns.

ONE HEALTH

One Health 

Arguing the Case for Massive Investments in One Health 

ONE HEALTH AND WET MARKETS

One Health: Key to Sustainable Livestock-- and Human and Environmental -- Health 

Despite Contamination Concerns, Africa Must Embrace “Wet Markets” as Key to Food Security 

Covid-19 has had the world at a stand-still since early last year and yet we are still trying to find out how the pandemic started. Did the virus come directly from a bat, a different wild animal, was it spread by frozen food, or was it even leaked from a lab?  A report published at the end of March by the World Health Organization and a joint team of scientists begins to unravel the mystery of the origins of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.  

Tim Offei-Addo sat down with Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at ILRI, to discuss his experience traveling to Wuhan as part of the team trying to find the origins of the pandemic.