News, Events and Blog Postings
International One Health Day
November 3rd is International One Health Day. One Health is the idea that the health of people, animals, plants and the environment are interlinked, and that health will be optimised by different disciplines (such as medicine, veterinary science, social science, economics, environmental science) working together rather than independently. It goes to the heart of multidisciplinarity in science, with large gains to be made by bringing together experts who may approach the similar problems with different skill sets and approaches.
Uppsala Health Summit: Behaviour change and biosciences necessary to tackle infectious diseases threats
This blog entry features the Uppsala Health Summit, themed “Tackling Infectious Disease Threats” that was held as from 10th to 11th October, 2017 of which the team-lead of our ZED Group, Prof Eric Fèvre, presented work from our Urban Zoo project on how pathogens from livestock are introduced and spread in urban environments.
Is there an association between plastic consumption (by animals), quality of meat and public health?
It is noted that out of 100 animals that are slaughtered 10-15 have plastic materials in their rumen with cases prevalent among animals reared in the urban and peri-urban areas.
A Pilot Study to Investigate the potential for developing syndromic surveillance system based on meat inspection records in Western Kenya
The rationale of this pilot project is to assess the feasibility of using slaughterhouse data to enhance the coverage and efficiency of the surveillance system in the study area alongside the routine laboratory based surveillance system.
Zoonoses in Livestock in Kenya – The Beginnings of Surveillance
ZooLinK is a cyclical programme which aims to set up surveillance systems of both human and animal health sectors over a long period of time. Surveillance of disease is particularly important, as the more information we have, the better we can treat diseases in both human and animal sectors. Recent research by colleagues indicates that the incidence of several zoonotic diseases, including E. coli, Salmonella sp. and others are vastly underestimated.
Antigenic diversity in the African trypanosomes Trypanosoma congolense and Trypanosoma vivax
Trypanosomes are extracellular blood parasites, transmitted by the bite of tsetse flies and cause nagana, a wasting disease severely compromising both animal health and livestock productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Challenges associated with tracking the movements of people and their livestock
Phase two of this study (detailed in the previous ZooLink newsletter) began in November. Over the last two months, we revisited 27 households that we collected GPS data from in phase one in order to track the movements of the same people and livestock as we did in...
Do livestock have a role in the emergence of disease in urban cities?
One of the primary objectives of the Urban Zoo project is to quantify and understand microbial diversity in an urban setting and to try and link that to urban livestock keeping. In so doing we aim to elucidate the possible role of livestock as a risk factor in the emergence of disease in cities.
Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) in pigs in Busia, Nairobi and Malawi
I am investigating the prevalence of Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) in pigs in both Kenya and Malawi in extensive, low input production systems. The aim is to determine whether invasive NTS are present in the pig population of three study areas; one rural and one urban area in Kenya and one rural region of Malawi. In sub-Saharan Africa, NTS is a leading cause of human mortality, particularly in the very young, old, malnourished, or those suffering from co-morbidities such as HIV or malaria.
Our Work in Pictures
Nairobi's main water treatment centre
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