Research collaboration towards improved animal and human health : Report of a workshop between the International Livestock Research Institute and partners from Germany, 27 February–1 March 2018

Collaboration between the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners from Germany dates back to the early days of ILRI’s predecessors, the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases and the International Livestock Centre for Africa. Since the 1980s, this joint research has focused on the control of trypanosomiasis in livestock (including camels) across the vast ‘tsetse belt’ of Africa and on increasing animal productivity through breeding and improved nutrition. From 27 February to 1 March 2018, the ILRI Nairobi campus hosted a workshop with 35 participants, including 10 visiting scientists from three leading German institutions: Freie Universität Berlin, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (Federal Research Institute for Animal Health). The workshop was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. The aim of the workshop was to strengthen collaborative research on animal and human health between ILRI and German research institutions. The workshop involved a combination of plenary discussions and break-out sessions in technical working groups to allow in-depth discussion of specific subject areas. The thematic working groups were on: (1) institutional collaborative agreements, (2) ticks and tickborne diseases, (3) foodborne and neglected tropical parasitic zoonoses, (4) antimicrobial resistance, (5) African swine fever and (5) Mycoplasma. By the end of the workshop, all working groups had delivered at least one concept note for joint research and joint resource mobilization for the research.