This document summarizes collaborative livestock research between the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and institutions in Germany. It discusses how the collaboration began in the 1980s and has grown over time. Currently, ILRI has partnerships with multiple German universities and research institutions. In 2018, ILRI and its German partners organized a workshop to identify overlapping research interests and establish thematic working groups in areas like ticks, neglected tropical diseases, and antimicrobial resistance. The collaboration aims to conduct research that fits within the global public health agenda.

1. Collaborative livestock research between ILRI and
Germany to fit the global public health agenda
Meeting of the tropical veterinary medicine working group of the
German Veterinary Association
Giessen, Germany
5 July 2018
Kristina Roesel, Delia Grace, Dieter Schillinger
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

2. 1. Introduction to ILRI
2. Collaborative research in the early days
3. Germany & global public health
4. Collaborative research and where we are heading

3. CGIAR
global partnership for a food secure future
• Vision: A world free of poverty,
hunger and environmental
degradation.
• Approach: Poverty alleviation
through agricultural research
• 15 non-profit research centres
• 8,000 research and support staff
• ROI US$ 1 US$ 17
• Contribution to 12 SDGs

4. International Livestock Research Institute
improve food security + reduce poverty in
developing countries
through research for better and more
sustainable use of livestock.

5. Main campuses: Nairobi,
Kenya and Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Offices in 14 other countries
ILRI offices
https://www.ilri.org/

6. ILRI Offices
Collaborative research with Germany
- how it began
• Since 1980s
• International Laboratory for Research on Animal
Diseases (ILRAD)
• International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA)
Adapted from: R.J. CONNOR and P. VAN DEN BOSSCHE, 2004,
African animal trypanosomoses, in Infectious diseases of
livestock, edited by J.A.W. Coetzer & R.C. Tustin. Oxford
University Press, Cape Town, 12: 251 - 295.
http://www.afrivip.org/sites/default/files/Tryps/index.html
Source: ILRI Flickr
Source: ILRI Flickr

7. ILRI Offices
Collaborative research with Germany
- how it began
• 1994 ILRAD + ILCA = ILRI
• Some German alumni helped
shaping ILRI
Dr Dieter Bommer (chairman ILCA BoT)
Prof. Kurt-J. Peters (DDG Research ILCA)
Dr Carlos Seré (DG ILRI)
Dr Dieter Schillinger (DDG Research ILRI)
Source: ILRI Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/albums/72157627183746056

8. ILRI Offices
Collaborative research with Germany
- today
• 8 German nationals
• 3 CIM integrated experts
• 22 DAAD students from Africa
• Funding BMZ/GIZ
• 2010-2018 > 10m EUR 14 research
projects
Source: ILRI Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/albums/72157622431704484

9. ILRI Offices
Collaborative research with Germany
- today
• Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR)
• Dt. Institut für tropische und subtropische Landwirtschaft (DITSL)
• Friedrich-Löffler-Institut (FLI)
• Freie Universität Berlin (FUB)
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Landeslabor Berlin-Brandenburg (LBB)
• Tierärzte ohne Grenzen e.V. (ToGeV, VSF-Germany)
• Tiermedizinische Hochschule Hannover (TiHo)
• Universität Kassel (UK)
• Universität Stuttgart-Hohenheim (UoH)

10. ILRI/BMZ Safe Food, Fair Food Project
Source: https://safefoodfairfood.ilri.org/

11. MoU BfR Nov 2016
MoU with FLI July 2018
mPig with ToGeV

12. Germany and its emerging role in global
public health
“Those health issues that transcend national boundaries and governments
and call for actions on the global forces that determine the health of
people.” (Kickbusch I, 2006)
“Germany has long been a reliable, yet rather silent actor in development
cooperation, providing continued support […].” (Bundesregierung, 2016)
Source: Kickbusch I, Franz C, Holzscheiter A, Hunger I, Jahn A, Köhler C, Razum O, Schmidt JO, 2017. Germany's expanding role in global health. The
Lancet. Volume 390, Issue 10097, 26 August–1 September 2017, Pages 898-912. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31460-5

13. Possible reasons for late coming
(discussed in Kickbusch et al., 2017)
• International health coordinated by EU
(fragmented at national level)
• Budgets for international health development
resided with German development assistance
(poor inter-ministry cooperation)
• No strong academic research base
• Political agenda did not prioritize health
(but environment, later defence and development)
• General, more EU-oriented
than globally oriented
• Germany did not actively seek a role
as a global leader but chose a discrete path

14. Turning point with G7/G20 presidencies
and Ebola crisis
• “Recognising the importance of interconnectedness in the era of
globalisation”
• Global health linked to priorities in domestic policy (e.g. AMR, NTDs)
• Health security and the protection of health facilities and health
workers are now part of the Munich Security Conference agenda
• Health not just as an outcome of human development, but also as a
precondition (VENRO and MSF, 2017)
“Health is more than crisis management: Every person has a right to health”

15. Germany and its emerging role in global
public health
“Expertise […] is still limited and must be strengthened to effectively build
partnerships and alliances across sectors and to integrate global health
consistently in its foreign policy strategy”

16. ILRI Offices
Collaborative research and where we are
heading
• 2017: scoping visits to Germany (DG, DDG-R)
• Overlapping research interests identified
• Scientists “matched” from ILRI, FUB, BfR, FLI
(established partnerships)
• Organized in thematic working groups
• Workshop in Nairobi 27 Feb – 1 Mar 2018
(funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition
and Health and the German partners)

17. Thematic working groups
1. Ticks and tickborne diseases, especially T. parva
2. Neglected tropical parasitic diseases
3. Antimicrobial resistance
4. African swine fever
5. Mycoplasma (CBPP, CCPP)
6. Mycotoxins
7. Institutional collaborative arrangements
Report and photos: http://hdl.handle.net/10568/92909

18. Asante sana!
Kristina Roesel
Jointly appointed scientist at
Freie Universität Berlin and the
International Livestock Research Institute
k.roesel@cigar.org
www.aghealth.wordpress.com
www.ilri.org

19. This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
better lives through livestock
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