Photo of the week

A day in the life: two Maasai women return from the creek with water for the morning's washing and cooking. (Photo by Misty Richmond)

How far do you walk for water each day?  Does your distance to water impact how much you use?

On the morning this photo was taken, HALI’s fabulous photographer Misty Richmond went with her new friends to participate in the morning chores.  After a half hour hike through the forest with the goats, sheep, and calves, they arrived at the creek, filled the buckets and headed home. They let Misty carry a bucket, for a little while, until they realized there would be no water left. Water quantity as well as quality are important for health, and access to water close by is associated with sanitation and hygiene – water for drinking, cooking, and washing.  So, the next time the faucet is running in your house, think of how many buckets you’re filling, and how you will manage to balance them on your head.

Novel lyssavirus discovered in Tanzania

I'm an incidental host, I swear!

This week the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Disease journal published a study showing evidence of a novel lyssavirus detected from brain samples of an African civet in the Serengeti ecosystem of Tanzania.

What does this mean? Well, essentially an African civet displaying rabies like symptoms was shot by Serengeti National Park (SNP) rangers in May of 2009, after the civet had bitten a child in an unprovoked attack.  Because SNP implements a rabies control program, park rangers were trained to take samples of the civet for analysis.  Brain tissue is the best sample type for detecting rabies virus, so a portion of the civets brain was taken to the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Dar es Salaam.

At the lab, scientists extracted RNA from the samples, and then with colleagues at the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency in the UK, detected a novel strain from the lyssavirus family using molecular techniques (e.g. pan-lyssavirus reverse transcriptase PCR).  The new virus, called Ikoma Lyssavirus (IKOV),  is highly divergent from rabies virus, though the civet’s behavior indicates it can cause rabies-like symptoms.  The child was treated with the post-exposure rabies vaccination and given wound care, and at the time of the report was well.  However, it is not known if the vaccine is effective against the new virus.

Phylogenetic relationships of all currently identified lyssavisures compared with Ikoma lyssavirus from the African civet.

This was the first detected case of rabies in SNP since 2000, but because the civet was infected with a novel lyssavirus, it is not considered a breach in the rabies control program.  Also, because lyssaviruses like rabies are infrequently detected in civets, it is assumed the animal was acting as an incidental host, which means that it was most likely infected through another animal, perhaps a bat.  This study demonstrates the importance of wildlife surveillance for public health, and projects like HALI working through the PREDICT project of USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threat program, are investigating wildlife, including bats, to better understand what viruses are circulating in wildlife and how best to prevent human exposure and respond to potential outbreaks.

To learn more about HALI’s role in the PREDICT project, feel free to contact the HALI team.

Adapting to climate change in eastern and southern Africa

In eastern and southern Africa, livelihoods are heavily dependent on agriculture and the natural resource base for subsistence.  These livelihoods are under threat from the uncertainty of a changing climate, and research organizations like the IUCN and HALI are leading projects to better understand how climate change will impact ecosystems, biodiversity, economies and livelihoods through activities like the Climate Change and Development Project.

In partnership with the Livestock – Climate Change CRSP, HALI is building on a year’s worth of research focused on the capacity of livestock systems to respond to health threats posed by climate variability, and is working towards better understanding microclimates, adaptation strategies, and human health and nutrition in the Ruaha ecosystem of Tanzania.  Led by our Staff Scientists and Post-doctoral researchers Liz VanWormer and Chris Gustafson of UC Davis, activities are just now getting underway as the team plans visits and assessments to villages in the Idodi and Pawaga wards, Iringa District.

We will be featuring some research briefings from the HALI CRSP team on their livestock capacity assessment project soon, and will also feature updates on new activities at local primary schools, pastoralist villages, and livestock extension centers as they get underway.

Hidden Hunger – Interventions to improve health and nutrition

Like the video? Interested in applied research and development and human nutrition? Then check out the latest volume of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Development’s Special Issue featuring the GL-CRSP’s ENAM project in Ghana. ENAM’s research and subsequent interventions enabled women to improve their livelihoods through collective action, microfinance, and training and education programs in health and nutrition.  These interventions helped ensure that ENAM’s lessons and benefits were passed onto families and children in the project villages, and that the project gained a foothold to continue after the research activities were concluded.  As a result, ENAM had a tremendous impact on livelihoods in their study community, was able to improve agriculture and nutrition extension policy in Ghana, and even helped secure a special center of excellence for nutrition near one of the project villages.  Check out AJFAND’s Volume 12 to learn about the project, escpecially their innovative methods and approaches for addressing development challenges through research.  Enjoy!

 

Photo of the week

Children gather in their home to read a HALI comic on zoonotic disease prevention in the Ruaha Ecosystem. (Photo by Misty Richmond).

New book chapter from D.L. Clifford in Carnivore Ecology and Conservation

We are very excited to announce that HALI’s Dr. Deana Clifford has a published new book chapter, “Investigating cause-specific mortality and diseases in carnivores: tools and techniques”. The book chapter is published in Carnivore Ecology and Conservation: A Handbook of Techniques, and is available through the Oxford University Press.  Check out the book if you’re interested in research methods and techniques for the study and conservation of terrestrial carnivore species. Congrats Deana!

Carnivore Ecology and Conservation

A Handbook of Techniques

Edited by Luigi Boitani and Roger A. Powell

Description. Animals that must hunt and kill for at least part of their living are inherently interesting to many people and the role that carnivores play in biological communities attract interest from ecologists and conservation biologists. Conflicts with human activities stimulate continual debates about the management of carnivore populations, and throughout the world people seek workable solutions for human/carnivore coexistence.This concise yet authoritative handbook describes research methods and techniques for the study and conservation of all terrestrial carnivore species. Particular attention is paid to techniques for managing the human/carnivore interface. Descriptions of the latest methodologies are supported by references to case studies, whilst dedicated boxes are used to illustrate how a technique is applied to a specific land cover type, species, or particular socio-economic context. The book describes the most recent advances in modelling the patterns of animal distributions, movements, and use of land cover types, as well as including the most efficient methods to trap, handle, and mark carnivores. Carnivores are biogeographically diverse and whilst extensive scientific research has investigated many aspects of carnivore biology, not all species have been equally covered. This book is unique in its intention to provide practical guidance for carrying out research and conservation of carnivores across all species and areas of the world.

Features

• Provides concise, yet authoritative descriptions of the most common techniques used to study wild carnivores and to conserve and manage their populations within increasingly human-dominated landscapes 
• Collates and synthesizes a widely dispersed literature, creating a single handbook for its application to field work 
• Descriptions of the latest techniques are supported by references to case studies, whilst dedicated boxes are used to illustrate how a technique is applied to a specific land cover type, species, or particular socio-economic context 

Product Details

544 pages; 60 illustrations; 9.2 x 6.1;ISBN13: 978-0-19-955852-0ISBN10: 0-19-955852-3

 Hardback, 544 pages

Mar 2012, In Stock

 $135.00 (06)

Photo of the week

Dr. Harrison Sadiki demonstrates necropsy techniques for Ruaha National Park rangers during a workshop on recognizing, identifying, and reporting diseases of concern for wildlife conservation and human health. (Photo by D. Clifford)