Browsing: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

The dairy industry in East and Central Africa is a multi-billion-dollar business supporting millions of small to medium farmers as well as a vibrant retail and manufacturing value chain across the region.  Dairy production plays an important role in supporting livelihoods and economies across East Africa.  

According to the East and Southern Africa Dairy Association (ESADA), 12 billion litres of milk are produced in East Africa annually, accounting for 27.5% of the continent’s 2017 output.  

Over 30 companies are involved in the processing and distributing milk including the region’s largest dairy processor Brookside Dairy, which has a market share of 40% in Kenya and the largest distribution and retail network in Uganda. Brookside is a powerful enterprise that boasts of Kenya’s first family on its board and controls a majority stake in Kenya’s processed milk. French dairy giant Danone is also a shareholder though it controls most of its …

The President of Tanzania, H.E. John Pombe Magufuli has raised a storm on the social media after questioning some of the tests conducted on Tanzanian patients, which he attributes to either poor workmanship in the National Referral Laboratory or faulty kits.

In a televised speech, the Tanzanian leader narrated how his security agents submitted different samples from domestic and wild animals as well as fruits and even natural oil, all disguised as human samples with queer results of goat, pawpaw and quail all returning positive for Covid-19.

Though this has become an online buzz, this has also raised critical questions on the validity of tests currently being used in Africa, mainly from China. There have been fears of the tests returning an invalid result painting a wrong picture of the pandemic.

African countries have been heavily relying on donated kits with Chinese billionaire Jack Ma sending in over one million …

Kenya has been chosen to host the African events around antibiotic use with increasing concerns about the effects of the misuse of these vital remedies and the impact it is having on public health.

It is the first time for the Regional Tripartite, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and World Health Organization (WHO), and the African Union, specifically Africa Center for Disease Prevention and Control (Africa CDC) and AU Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), to jointly organize the World Antibiotic Awareness Week.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a major global threat of increasing concern to human and animal health. Antimicrobial resistance happens when microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites) change and become resistant to antimicrobial drugs (such as antibiotics) to which they were originally susceptible to. This can be due to different factors such as the …