The 4th Medical and Veterinary Virus Research Symposium in Kenya

Oct 16, 2015 | Blog, Latest news

Overview

Endemic, emerging and re-emerging viral pathogens are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in both human and animal populations globally. A few examples of these include MERS CoV, HIV, Ebola, H1N1, seasonal Flu, Rift-valley fever, dengue and Respiratory Syncial Virus. Considerable virus research work goes on in Kenya and in the East African region but there has been a paucity of opportunities for scientists in the region to come together, discuss research output and forge new research questions, networks and collaborations.

The Medical and Veterinary Virus Research (MVVR) an initiative of virus research leaders working in Kenya on important viral infections both in humans and animals that brought together virology scientists around Kenya and the East Africa region to showcase their research over a two-day period .

The last MVVR-3 meeting brought together over 130 researchers from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania working in various fields of human and animal virus research. The MVVR-4 was held on the 15-16th October, 2015, guided by the theme, “Virus Research for Intervention Policy”.

The scientists that convened the symposium are affiliated to local research centers, local universities and international research organizations based in Kenya. The symposium was guided by the following objectives:

Objectives 

  • The primary objective of MVVR-4 is to showcase virology research in Kenya and the East and Central Africa region.
  • To provided a platform for like-minded professionals to share and discuss research findings as well as encourage cooperative research on emerging viral infections that pose significant threat to human and animal welfare.
  • To setup an integrated virus research Programme in the region
  • Particularly keen to encourage early stage scientists to present their work and thus offer them both a training ground and opportunity to network and develop collaborations.

Our ZED group participation

Our group was represented in  by Prof. Eric Fevre, who presented our recent collaborative paper on MERS CoV in Kenya.  Our first research output on this topic will be available from next week, follow us on twitter and also do come back to our blog page for updates.

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MVVR-4 Poster

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One of our key research output will be available as from next week, follow us on twitter and also constantly view our blog page for updates.

Food Consumption, Urbanisation and Rural Transformations Regional Workshop

Oct 16, 2015 | Blog, Latest news

Workshop objectives

This was a regional workshop held at the Campus of International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), attended by approximately 40 participants from 6 countries and 32 organisations. It was organized by the International Intitute for Environment and Development (IIED) in collaboration with ILRI in Nairobi, Kenya as from 12-14th October 2015.

The workshop had the following objectives:

  • Understand and contextualize the importance of food consumption, urbanisation and rural transformations and their impacts on the rural-urban livelihoods, development and economies
  • Identify the current trends in food consumption of urban and rural low income communities
  • Understand on how the government and other civil societies are collaborating to co-produce better services, infrastructure and their knowledge on food security
  • Inform on what would a new consumption-oriented food security policy agenda look like
  • Identify the policy innovations that have potential for replication and priority issues for research, knowledge integration and advocacy
  • Understand on how to operationalize and scale up the priorities, towards further consolidation of knowledge, policy dialogue and new interdisciplinary research
SESSION 1: Workshop perspectives

The first session focused primarily on conceptual discussions and clarifications with brief presentations. In the subsequent discussions there was general agreement that it is important to move away from looking at cities from a broader perspective or as a unit rather as having segments with different problems requiring specific solutions. More work is needed to clarify the concepts and the different actors within the food value chain.

SESSION 2: Food Transitions-Rural an Urban

The session reviewed the insights on the current trends in food consumption of urban and rural low-income groups in Kenya and East Africa, with presentations covering the key issues in food security for the residents of urban low income settlements and in food security for rural net food buyers.

SESSION 3: Urbanization and Rural Transformation

The key highlights from this session were:

  • Governments are concerned about food safety.
  • The informal and formal sectors are interwoven with other resource networks based on urban-rural complementariness.
  • Agricultural shifts favour urban areas but as a result also affect the rural areas.
  • Participatory regulation is key taking into account the participants.
  • When looking at transformations it is important to look at how the rural and urban are co-developing.
  • A city would halt if the operations within the informal settlements stopped functioning.
  • Informal is not unsafe and formal may not be safer either.
  • The informal markets are big, feed a high number of people, and they are here to stay.
SESSION 4: Policy Priorities and Support to Innovative Initiatives

The key highlights from this session were:

  • There is need to have evidence based data.
  • Integrate and systems-based solutions to guide sector development along a sustainable pathway.
  • Have inter-county approaches to guarantee food availability.
  • Mitigate the waste management in Nairobi by building sewage systems upstream and downstream.
  • View the urban-rural linkages as a continuum rather than a single entity
  • Properly disaggregated research data to all the economic strata.
SESSION 5: Towards a new policy agenda

Key priority areas identified in this session were:

  • Adopt a cconsumption oriented food policy
  • Reduce wastage of food and encourage recycling and resilience
  • Policy should be inclusive and multi-sectoral, targeting everyone in the chain
  • A city should be viewed from a socio-diversified differentiated perspective
  • It is important to first think of food insecurity and be specific where urbanisation is occurring
  • Informal systems respond fundamentally to the problems of the poor people and they are part of the solution
  • The informal sector is a vibrant sector for employment and poorly understood by governments and international organisations
  • Every city is different requiring solutions to their unique problems
  • Transformational change comes from individuals
  • Sometimes it is not just about technical issues but also about voice and power
  • Prioritize on food and nutritional security
  • Enlighten consumers on how is the food they eat produced
  • Urban planning
  • Capacity building for all food chain actors

SESSION 6: PRIORITIES FOR NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH THAT INCLUDES ACTION-RESEARCH COMPONENTS AND POLICY DIALOGUES

So as to identify the priority areas, participants were initially informed to write one idea of what they believe is a priority area that needs to be focused on to move the conservation ahead in tandem with the workshop agenda. Out of the over 30 ideas from the participants, six thematic areas were identified, namely: Capacity building, methodology, linkages, additional evidence, policy/advocacy, and enforcing local regulations. Based on these thematic areas the participants were further clustered into groups to deliberate further on these thematic areas. The following were the outcomes (click image to view):

IIED_Workshop_Additional_Evidence

IIED_Workshop_Capacity_Building

IIED_Workshop_Enforcing_Regulations

IIED_Workshop_Linkages

IIED_Workshop_Methodology

IIED_Workshop_Policy_Advocacy

From the six thematic areas detailed from the above section, 3 key action-areas were identified, namely: Knowledge gaps, interdisciplinary research and policy/advocacy. Based on these three action-areas participants were engaged to develop three achievable ideas and develop them. To know about the action-areas, be visiting this page for the full report that will be posted latter next week or follow us on twitter and also constantly view our blog page for updates.

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Field visit at Mathare

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Group Work Session

99 HouseHold Study: Sykes monkey

Oct 6, 2015 | Blog, Latest news, Urban Zoo Project

Identification

It is known as Kima/Nchima in Swahili and having other names such as blue monkeys or samango’s or white-throated monkey. The majority have a grey coloration, but they do have a blackish tail, limbs and shoulders with some chestnutty patches on their back and face. Finally they have a white chin and throat and a white ruff that extends around part of their neck. They have gorgeous brown/orange eyes with a slightly large squashed nose.

Sykes monkeys have an average life span of around 27 years in the wild. They can range from 50 to 70cm in body length with the males weighing between 6-9kg and females 3-6kg.

Distribution

The Syke monkey is native to Angola; Burundi; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Ethiopia; Kenya; Malawi; Mozambique; Rwanda; Somalia; South Africa; South Sudan; Swaziland; Tanzania, United Republic of; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe. They are semi-arboreal semi-terrestrial and are comfortable in both environments.

Habitat and Ecology

This species is present in many different forest types including lowland and montane tropical moist forest, riverine and gallery forest, delta forest and bamboo forest. Also found in sand forest. It can occur in secondary forest, logged forest and thickets. Group size ranges from 2 to more than 40 individuals. The gestation period is around 176 days after which a single young is usually born.

Diet

Their main diet is shoots, fruits, leaves, flowers and berries, but they do also consume eggs, insects and any opportunistic human food they can get their hands on (especially when it comes to unsuspecting tourists).

Behaviour

Sykes are very territorial and live in female bonded; single-male troops and the group size can vary between 4-65. The groups are very stable and peaceful with the resident male maintaining dominance for years and the sub-adult males being evicted readily. Sometimes an outsider male will learn to imitate the call of the group’s dominant male to attract the females away.

Reproduction

The mating system is polygynous, and there is a corresponding sexual dimorphism in size, with the males substantially the larger sex. Females normally give birth every two years, during the onset of the warm, rainy season; gestation is around five months, and the infants are born with fur and with their eyes open. Group sizes range from 10 to 40, containing only a single adult male.

IUCN classification

As a species Cercopithecus mitis are rated as ‘least concern’ by the IUCN as it is widespread, common, present in numerous protected areas, and there are no major threats. However, when considered at subspecies level their rating ranges from data deficient to critically endangered.

Reference
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Examining the Sykes monkey

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Blood sample collection from Sykes monkey

99 Household Study: Fruit bat

Oct 6, 2015 | Blog, Latest news, Urban Zoo Project

Description

The Fruit Bat is a family of several species of bats that are sometimes referred as Flying Foxes. They have a life expectancy of about 30 years. They vary in terms of their length ranging between below 6 to 40 centimeters and weighing about 1.6 kilograms. They have large eyes with an excellent vision and sense of smell that they use in finding food and for their own protection. Their sharp teeth and long tongue enable them to feed successfully on fruits.  The shape of their wings varies to adapt to the various sites and locations that they belong to and at times the different wing sizes and shapes has been attributed to their different feeding environments.

Anatomy and Behaviour

Fruit bats are relatively large bats. Their wings are long fingers covered by thin skin, and the body is furry. Males and females look alike. Like all bats, they have weak legs and don’t walk very well. Livingstone’s Fruit Bat (Pteropus livingstonii, from Africa) is one of the largest fruit bats; it has a wingspan of up to 6 ft (1.8 m). The long-tongued fruit bat (Macroglossus minimus) is one of the smallest fruit bats; it has a wingspan of 5-6 inches (13-15 cm).

The wings of the Fruit Bat is an adaptation to allow them to fly, stay warm when roosting. They belong to large colonies referred to as “camps” which is a safety mechanisms  and in every 8 females their can be 1 male. They feed on flower nectar and fruit juice.

Distribution and Habitat

The Fruit bats live in dense forests in Africa, Europe, Australia, and Asia. They tend to thrive well in forested and grassland areas with a lot of food especially fruit trees, especially in areas with warmer climates which propagate variety of trees to grow throughout the year. In certain times of the year they can travel long distances to find food. When roosting during the day, they do so high up in the trees which provides sufficient darkness that protects against various predators, or hide in crevices or other dark areas and typically live close to water bodies.

Reproduction

The gestation period of the Fruit Bat is about 6 months. After delivery the females nurture the young for a period of 6 weeks until the young is able to fly by itself.

Predators

Some of predators for the Fruit Bat are: Birds (e.g. hawk, eagle), snakes, cats.

Advantages to nature

As fruit bats fly from plant to plant getting food, they also pollinate the plants they visit. In addition, they disperse the plants’ seeds as they eat. Many plants, including some avocados, dates, mangos, and peaches, are dependent on these bats for either pollination or seed dispersal

Diseases transmission

Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of bats to act as reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens (as reviewed in Hayman et al.(2012). One example is the common and conspicuous straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum), which has been identified by Banyard et al (2012) as a reservoir host for Lagos bat virus (LBV, family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus) and henipaviruses (family Paramyxoviridae) by Hayman et al (2008) in mainland Africa.

References
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Fruitbat (Epomophorus) during 99 Household study

99 HouseHold Study: Scarlet-chested sunbird

Oct 6, 2015 | Blog, Latest news, Urban Zoo Project

Identification

Length 13-15 cm, mass 12-15 g, males larger than females. Male: Black with iridescent emerald-green crown and chin and scarlet throat and upper breast. Bill, legs and feet black, eyes dark brown. Female: Upper parts and face dark brown, eyebrow whitish. Chin and throat dark brown, feathers edged light brown. Breast and belly pale yellow, streaked dark brown.

Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa.

Taxonomy

This is one of the seven Sunbirds that have recently been moved into the genus Chalcomitra from the genus Nectarinia. Chalcomitra senegalensis has 6 subspecies, variation being mostly in the colour of the underparts.

Habitat

Broadleaved open woodland, moist thornveld, coastal bush, parks and gardens. Leonotis flowers are particular attractive to this birds.

Behaviour

Often in groups at nectar sources where males frequently chase conspecifics and other Sunbirds. Also hunts insects and spiders, but usually alone. May hover to feed, but usually perches.

Breeding: The male defends the the breeding territory. The nest is pear-shaped with a hood over the entrance hole, and suspended from a branch. It is built by the female using dry grass, stems, leaves and/or bark bound by spider web. Usually two eggs are laid and incubated by the female. Chicks and fledglings are fed by both parents for up to eight weeks. Parasitised by Klaas’s Cuckooand, less often, African Emerald Cuckoo and Dideric Cuckoo

Reference
  • Cheke, R. & Mann, C. (2008). Scarlet-chested Sunbird (Chalcomitra senegalensis). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2014). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/60007 on 6 October 2015).
  • Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ & Ryan PG (eds) 2005. Robert’s Birds of Southern Africa, 7th edition. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 0620340533
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Male Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Image source: Click here

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Female Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Image source: Click here

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Male at 99 Household study

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