Tag: livestock
Episode 72 – An EPIC Undertaking
We hope that the UK will never see another major livestock disease outbreak such as foot and mouth disease or avian influenza. But if we do, we will be much better prepared to deal with it thanks to EPIC, the Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks. This interdisciplinary group of researchers from several Scottish institutions, including researchers from the […]
Episode 43: Living with anthrax in Africa
What is life like in an anthrax-endemic area of Tanzania? Join our anthrax research team on a journey to Maasai communities of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Horse and donkey sleeping sickness: investigating equine central nervous system trypanosomosis in The Gambia
It is hard to envisage the world without technology, one in which we are still reliant on working animals for transport and agriculture. Yet, in those parts of the Global South where mechanisation is largely absent, millions of horses and donkeys remain heavily relied upon. However, across Sub-Saharan Africa an unrelenting parasitic disease—trypanosomosis—besets these working animals, with a particularly severe […]
Getting there is half the battle
Some things never make it into a journal article. In an Institute such as ours the path to a good paper is often—literally—covered in mud. In coming posts we hope to bring you more tales of the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the field research conducted by our staff and students; however, there is that old adage about pictures saying […]
Episode 28 – At war with worms: an interview with nematode parasitologist Collette Britton
Globally around one billion people are infected by parasitic nematodes, and their impact on livestock can be devastating. For millennia, parasites and hosts have been locked in an evolutionary war, an arms race with ever changing goal posts. However, scientists are using modern technology to bring new weapons to the fore. Here, Naturally Speaker James Burgon talks to Dr Collette […]
The path of most resistance
Lurking in the digestive tracts of grazing livestock, parasitic nematodes exact a brutal toll on agriculture. For a long time they have been treated and controlled with a group of drugs known as anthelmintics. However, many of these drugs no longer work effectively because the parasites have developed resistance to them. Here, post-doctoral researcher Dr Roz Laing tells us about […]
