In January, a team of human, animal, and environmental health investigators began an ambitious surveillance project to detect novel influenza viruses among poultry in Vietnam. The surveillance will involve collecting more than 5,000 field samples during a 12-month time period at live bird markets in Hanoi and three of Vietnam’s northern provinces.
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In October 2017, ILRI researchers and partners from Vietnam and US conducted a pilot study of aerosol sampling surveillance in a large wholesale live bird market in Hanoi. Of the air samples collected during a three-week period, 90% were positive for molecular evidence of influenza A. These results were positively associated with molecular results from oropharyngeal swab samples collected from chickens and ducks. Noninvasive bioaerosol samplers may serve as an early warning screening tool for novel influenza virus detection in live bird markets. Continue reading
Three scientists from South Asia are taking part in a six-week research visit at the Joint Laboratory on Livestock and Forage Genetic Resources (JLLFGR) in Beijing, China. This lab is jointly run by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and has been operating since 2004. Continue reading
Over the years, genetic diversity of indigenous livestock populations have been in a clear state of decline – due to a combination of factors, including but not confined to: Increased crossbreeding aimed at improving animal productivity; Neglect arising from shifts in social settings, production systems and falls in the market demand for certain animal products; … Continue reading
