A Maasai child draws water from the same pond being used by livestock. (Photo by J. Brownlie)

The November 2011 issue of the New Agriculturalist focuses on current efforts to tackle transboundary, zoonotic, and emerging diseases, including ‘one health’ approaches that address human and environmental concerns within the context of livestock disease control.

Since 2006, the Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement (HALI) project has been investigating patterns of diseases such as bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in livestock, wildlife, people and the environment. “Understanding the dynamics of zoonotic disease agents in human, livestock and wildlife populations, and how they relate to land use change and environmental management, is critical to developing mitigation strategies,” states Woutrina Miller, HALI co-principal investigator.

Funding for the HALI project comes, in part, from the Livestock-Climate Change CRSP, based at Colorado State University. This project was initiated under the Global Livestock CRSP which was based at the University of California, Davis. The HALI project was recently awarded 3.5 years of funding through the LCC CRSP Long-Term Research Program.

Full Article

Complete Issue (focused on livestock disease)

By Durga Poudel, University of Louisiana/LCC CRSP SLPS Project & Sarah Lupis, LCC CRSP

Dr. Durga Poudel talks about climate change adaptations for livestock keepers in Nepal to about 25 faculty, staff, and students in the University of Louisiana School of Geosciences on September 20, 2011. Photo courtesy of Durga Poudel.

Nearly 50 million years ago, tectonic plates collided, giving rise to the lofty Himalayas, majestic mountains, scenic valleys and meandering rivers of Nepal.  Lying on this fault line, the region has been prone to devastating earthquakes—the tragic 2001 Gujrat earthquake, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, and the current Sikkim earthquake, to name a few.  Today, explained Dr. Durga D. Poudel in a September 20^th presentation to the faculty, staff, and students of the School of Geosciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA, this region is vulnerable to a new threat: climate change.

In his presentation, Poudel emphasized current vulnerabilities of the region to climate change impacts. “This region is experiencing increasing incidences of flooding, drought, glacier retreats and glacial lake outbursts in recent years.  Temperature rise, shifting cropping zones, emerging incidences of diseases and pests, and landslides and river-cuttings are other problems related to the climate change impacts,” he explained to the crowd that gathered for the talk.

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The IBLI program expanded to southern Ethiopia in February 2012 and will initially target 2,700 pastoralists there who are also experiencing severe drought. Photo by Peter Little.

In January 2010, John McPeak, Associate Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Public Administration and International Affairs at Syracuse University of  and leader of the LCC CRSP’s RIVERS and MLPI-2 projects, helped to launch the first-ever Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) scheme in Kenya. Facing extreme drought conditions, livestock keepers may soon receive their first payments, reports SciDev Net. read more »

Calm amid the crisis: Despite drought, herders and their animals from Somalia and Kenya converge on an Ethiopian watering hole in a systematic order. Photo by Peter Little.

By Carol Clark, Emory University

Emory anthropologist Peter Little was in southern Ethiopia last February, during the height of a major drought that continues to scorch the Horn of Africa. He is researching how climate change is affecting livestock herders in the region [with the Livestock-Climate Change CRSP CHAINS project]. During the past year, drought has killed about 20 percent of the cattle, or about 225,000 animals, within Ethiopia’s Borana pastoralist community.

At a watering hole, Little watched herders bring their animals in from northeastern Kenya and Somalia, where the effects of the drought are compounded by armed conflict. “I was amazed by the skill and discipline of these herders,” Little says. “They got thousands of thirsty animals to line up like schoolchildren. Some of the camels hadn’t had water for seven days.”

First the herders themselves approached the water’s edge with buckets and canteens. Then the goats were sent in an orderly procession to drink, followed by the cattle, and finally the camels.

“We could learn a lot from African pastoralists about how to collectively manage resources,” Little says. He contrasts their cooperative use of extremely limited water supplies to the inter-state battles fought over Atlanta’s Lake Lanier reservoir, and the ever-shrinking Colorado River.

Read more at www.emory/esciencecommons.edu

Related Story: Peter Little, CHAINS Project Leader, on the Drought in the Horn of Africa

The Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program (LCC CRSP) at Colorado State University (CSU) has awarded a second fellowship to Colorado State University graduate student Jennifer Higgins who will be conducting research on brucellosis in Mongolia. The fellowship is designed to help prepare graduate students for interdisciplinary international careers.

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