Better lives through livestock
Healthy animals for healthy lives in low- and middle-income
countries
Hung Nguyen, Vish Nene, Delia Grace Randolph, Silvia Alonso, Charity Kinyua,
Nicholas Svitek, Elise Schieck, Bernard Bett, Fred Unger, Hussein Abkallo, Kristina Roesel,
Sinh Dang-Xuan
Tropentag Conference
15 September, 2021

2
Accelerating African Swine Fever Virus Vaccine Development
• highly efficient CRISPR/Cas9 and
innovative synthetic biology
approaches to fast-track rational
development of ASFV vaccine
candidates
• Successfully established CRISPR/Cas9
system for editing ASFV genome
• Synthetic Biology Platform for rapid
modification of ASFV genome
• Generated 10 ASFV live-attenuated
vaccine candidates due to be tested
in pigs
Abkallo HM et al., 2021. Rapid CRISPR/Cas9 Editing of Genotype IX African Swine Fever Virus Circulating
in Eastern and Central Africa. Front. Genet. 12:733674. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.733674
Source: Ishino Y, Krupovic M, and Forterre P,2018.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JB.00580-17

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Biotechnology to fight
antimicrobial resistance
Diagnostics
• Antibiotics are still used to treat
undiagnosed infections  AMR
• Bacterial and viral infections typically
induce different responses in the host -
opportunity to use these markers for
rapid test
• Example bacterial marker: S100PBP
• Example viral marker: MxA
Schieck, E., Fossum, C., Hjertner, B. and Lutzelschwab, C. 2020. Diagnostics to reduce
antimicrobial (mis)use. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/109788

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Biotechnology to fight antimicrobial
resistance
Prevention through bacteriophages
• Demand for poulty predicted to increase by 800% by 2050 in Africa
• Bacteriophages as an option to antibiotics!
• eco-safe viruses that only kill bacteria
• do not cause side effects, are ubiquitous, more specific than antibiotics and have
the advantage of co-evolving with their bacterial host, reducing the emergence of
long-term resistance
Svitek, N., Makumi, A., Haan, N. de and Moineau, S. 2020. Bacteriophages a viable alternative to antibiotic use in poultry farming.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/109781
Makumi, A.; Mhone, A.L.; Odaba, J.; Guantai, L.; Svitek, N. Phages for Africa: The Potential Benefit and
Challenges of Phage Therapy for the Livestock Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. Antibiotics 2021, 10, 1085.
https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10091085

5
Emerging Infectious (Zoonotic) Diseases
Okoth, E. and Oyola, S. 2020. Repurposing ILRI labs to support national
COVID-19 testing in Kenya. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/109214
1. COVID-19
2. Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever
3. Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease
4. Lassa fever
5. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
6. Nipah and henipaviral diseases
7. Rift Valley fever
8. Zika
9. “Disease X”*

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Emerging Infectious (Zoonotic) Diseases
• Incidence of emerging and re-emerging
infectious diseases - such as Rift Valley
fever (RVF) - is increasing globally
• Drivers of EID emergence/transmission:
– Land use, climate, socio-economic and
demographic changes
• We are using statistical and simulation
models to identify hotspots for these
diseases
• Hotspot mapping enables:
– Risk-based surveillance – targeting high risk
areas for early detection and response
– Estimation of disease burden
• Sequencing and phylogenetic analyses
being used to characterize EID pathogens
Risk of RVF in East Africa. Epidemics
of the disease commonly occurs
after periods of above normal
precipitation and persistent flooding
Mbotha D, Bett B, Kairu-Wanyoike S, Grace D, Kihara A, Wainaina M, Hoppenheit A, Clausen PH, Lindahl J. Inter-epidemic
Rift Valley fever virus seroconversions in an irrigation scheme in Bura, south-east Kenya. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2018
Feb;65(1):e55-e62. doi: 10.1111/tbed.12674. Epub 2017 Jul 14.

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Food safety and informal markets: Gaps in
understanding how to manage disease risks
Where to intervene?
Farm
Processing plant
Market
How to intervene?
Technological
(i.e. aflasafe™, resistant based variants)
Institutional
(i.e. T&C milk traders)
Technically effective?
Contribution to
improved food
safety and nutrition?
Cost-effective?
Will they take up the
intervention?
How many beneficiaries
do we reach?
 Evidence
 Interventions:
 Impact

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Quantitative risk assessment & intervention
(example Vietnam)
• Population of Vietnam: 94 million people
• Cases of foodborne diseases by Salmonella
in pork at 17%: 16 million get sick
• Cost $ 107 to treat one case:
$ 1,712 million (0.8% GDP)
Age and gender groups
Estimated annual
salmonellosis incidence rate,
Hung Yen, Vietnam (Mean
(90% CI)) (%)
Children (under 5 years old) 11.18 (0 – 45.05)
Adult female (6-60 years
old)
16.41 (0.01 – 53.86)
Adult male (6-60 years old) 19.29 (0.04 – 59.06)
Elder (over 60 years old) 20.41 (0.09 – 60.76)
Overall 17.7 (0.89 – 45.96)
Dang-Xuan Sinh et al., 2017: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0921-x
Hoang Van Minh et al., 2015:
10.3346/jkms.2015.30.S2.S178
Low cost intervention at slaughter (Vietnam)
and retail (Vietnam and Cambodia)
© ILRI/Chi
Manual for slaughter and retail

9
Learning from failures
(example: Tanzania)
© ILRI/Ben Lukuyu © ILRI/Dave Elsworth
Why training interventions fail: Findings from
Tanzania
(Charity Kinyua, Silvia Alonso, Emma Blackmore, Vusilizwe Thebe)
professionalize, not criminalize
© ILRI/Georgina Smith
Kinyua, C., Alonso, S., Blackmore, E. and Thebe, V. 2021.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114202

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Learning from failures
(example: Tanzania)
© ILRI/Ben Lukuyu © ILRI/Dave Elsworth
Why training interventions fail: Findings from
Tanzania
(Charity Kinyua, Silvia Alonso, Emma Blackmore, Vusilizwe Thebe)
professionalize, not criminalize
© ILRI/Georgina Smith
Kinyua, C., Alonso, S., Blackmore, E. and Thebe, V. 2021.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114202
success depends on:
• Training design and delivery
• Incentives for change
• Long term funding