Bacteria pose bigger risk than chemical contamination of Vietnamese pork—New research

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Selling pork at a traditional ‘wet’ market in Hung Yen province, northern Vietnam (photo credit: ILRI/HUPH/Ngan Tran). ‘Forty eight out of 108 (44 per cent) cut pork meat samples collected at wet markets in Hưng Yên Province were found to contain the disease-causing bacteria Salmonella. . . . ‘The researchers determined…

Making livestock foods safe—Lessons from Vietnam on what works—and what doesn’t

Originally posted on ILRI news:
At the Sunday market in Sapa, northern Vietnam, women butcher hogs slaughtered outside of town but still steaming when they start working on them at the market (image via Flickr/Kurt Johnson). From ‘Background’ ‘Food-borne diseases and food poisonings are attracting a lot of attention in Vietnam due to repeated episodes…

Safe Food, Fair Food project research presented at tropical veterinary medicine conference

Research from the Safe Food, Fair Food project featured during the first joint conference of the Association of Institutions for Tropical Veterinary Medicine and the Society of Tropical Veterinary Medicine held in Berlin, Germany on 4-8 September 2016. Continue reading →

One Health to feature at international conference on tropical veterinary medicine

Originally posted on AgHealth:
The holistic concept of ‘One World-One Health’ in disease prevention and control will be among the topics of discussion at the first joint international conference of the Association of Institutions for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (AITVM) and the Society of Tropical Veterinary Medicine (STVM) which is scheduled to place on 4-8 September…

Ugandan project student continues work on multi-resistant Salmonella isolates at German partners’ labs

From August to October 2015, Dickson Ndoboli, an ILRI graduate fellow in the GIZ-funded, ILRI-led Safe Food, Fair Food project, was hosted by project partners at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, to continue his research on antibiotic resistance and plasmid profile analysis of Salmonella strains from Uganda. Resistance to antiinfective drugs can develop naturally in bacteria, … Continue reading →

New biogas plant improves waste management in Kampala pig abattoir

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
Danilo Pezo of ILRI engages project staff and partners at the handover of a biogas plant at Wambizzi (photo credit: ILRI/Brian Kawuma). Wambizzi, the only pig abattoir in Uganda is located in Nalukolongo, west of Kampala city and handles up to 150 pigs a day. It…

Biogas production takes off at Wambizzi abattoir in Kampala

Generating biogas from organic waste could provide two important benefits addressing public health challenges: it can generate clean power (methane for cooking and electricity) as well as reduce the pathogen burden at the slaughter house premises leading to less cross-contamination and rendering slaughter waste into a product safe to use as fertilizer or even animal feeds. Continue reading →

Flies and pork – a love story

Flies are attracted to meat – especially pork. And they aren’t the only ones to have this craving: Most people in Uganda really like pork – as is evidenced by Uganda’s having the highest pork consumption per person of all East-African countries (FAO, 2011). This relationship spurred a research project in May 2014 run by the PhD candidate, Martin Heilmann, who is himself attracted to insects in general. Thus, our love story comes full circle. The project, which tries to assess the risk of flies as cross-contaminators, was developed by the Institute of Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine at Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health and the BMZ funded “Safe Food, Fair Food” project in Uganda which is led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Continue reading →

From (bio)mass to (bio)gas – or: how to efficiently utilize urban slaughter waste

The problem of slaughter waste management and its relevance to public health in Uganda has not yet been described in the literature. Zoonotic pathogens on contaminated carcasses such as E. coli, Salmonella and Cryptosporidium can be directly transmitted to meat handlers and consumers; but they can also have an indirect impact. Diseases can also be … Continue reading →

Safe Food, Fair Food at Tropentag 2014

Tropentag is a major annual conference on tropical agriculture in Central Europe. This year, to mark 40 years of international livestock research, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) held a side event at the conference to showcase its work. A poster on the Safe Food, Fair Food project was presented during a special ILRI poster … Continue reading →