Our broad set of questions include:

• Does urban livestock keeping pre-dispose people to acquiring new or more diverse microbial flora?
• Is the risk compounded by poverty status or other social factors?
• How is the microbial flora influenced by the keeping of livestock in these areas?
• Do supply chains for livestock and livestock products bring people into contact with microbial diversity over and above what they would otherwise experience?
• Why do people source food from particular places? What social and economic factors define food sourcing in a complex city?
• What influences the microbial flora to which people are exposed through food?
• How does the design of complex urban environments influence exposure to microbial flora?
• How has the city of Nairobi grown, how does it continue to grow, and how does urbanization in the region affect exposure to microbial diversity in the human and animal population?
• What is the role of per-domestic wildlife in transmission of zoonotic pathogens and the transport of microbial flora?
• Why do supply chains exist in the way that they do, and how might they change as demand for products changes with urban growth, or as a consequence of legislation?

The findings will inform development of policy on urban livestock keeping by improving knowledge of the public health risks and by putting those risks in a wider socio-economic context, including the risks associated with alternative sources of livestock products.

Eric Fèvre is a Professor of Veterinary Infectious Diseases, Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool with expertise in epidemiology of zoonoses at the livestock human interface. View his profile

Jonathan Rushton is an agricultural economist who specialises in the economics of animal health and livestock production and food systems. He is currently involved in global research on One Health and food systems, and has 25 years of international experience of livestock production and the control of animal diseases in South America, Africa and Asia. View his profile

Cecilia Tacoli is a sociologist with interest in urban-rural linkages, food security, migration and gender. She is the Co-Head, Human Settle-ments Group; Team Leader, Rural-urban Development at IIED. View profile

Catherine Kyobutungi is a clinician and an epidemiologist. She leads the Health Systems and Challenges Research Program at the APHRC. View profile

Erastus Kangethe is a Professor of Veterinary Public Health at the University of Nairobi. He is a veterinarian with interests in veterinary public health, meat hygiene, urban livestock and zoon-oses and urban development policy in Kenya. View profile

Delia Grace is a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety specialist at ILRI. She brings exper-tise in applied veterinary public health, food safety and food chain risk assessments and participatory epidemiology. View profile

Sam Kariuki is currently the Chief Research Scientist and Head of Department, Centre for Microbiology Research at KEMRI in Nairobi. View profile

Mark Woolhouse is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. View profile

Julio Davila is Professor of Urban Policy & International Development, & Director of the Development Planning Unit, University College London (UCL). View profile

Tim Robinson is a Senior Spatial Analyst at ILRI. He maintains the only comprehensive global resource on sub-national livestock statisitcs. View profile

As well as our group and colleagues at the Institute of Infection & Global Health at the University of Liverpool, the other partners in this project include:

• The Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh
• The Development Planning Unit (DPU) at University College London
• The Royal Veterinary College, University of London
• The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
• The University of Nairobi
• The International Livestock Research Institute
• The Kenya Medical Research Institute
• The African Population and Health Research Center
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
• The Roslin Institute
• The Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre

To learn more about our opportunities, please visit our opportunities page.