Germany and ILRI intensify scientific cooperation to protect consumer health in Africa and Europe

BfR Nairobi workshop participants (photo credit: BfR).

BfR, Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment,

is supporting an international workshop in Kenya

on the protection of human and animal health.

With the participation of German research institutions and authorities, a workshop to improve human and animal health protection is taking place in Kenya this week (27 Feb to 1 Mar 2018). The workshop is organized by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Ten scientists from the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Free University of Berlin (FU) Berlin and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) are participating on behalf of Germany.

In times of global supply chains, the close scientific exchange between Africa and Europe is of great importance to us all.

We are pleased that we are managing to level a path for future cooperation between institutions from both countries and different continents and discuss and further develop strategies for dealing with food-borne illnesses and antimicrobial resistance.

—BfR President Professor Dr Dr Andreas Hensel

The goal of the workshop is to strengthen research cooperation between ILRI and the German institutions, to exchange views and ideas on research activities and results and to develop joint projects.

The BfR is participating in working groups on (1) institutional cooperation, (2) on food-borne zoonoses (diseases transmitted from animals to humans) transferred via parasites and (3) on livestock-production related issues that may be contributing to the rise in antimicrobial resistance.

This meeting was preceded by a meeting of ILRI directors with the partner organizations in Germany in 2017, at which possible areas for cooperation were identified.

This past January, ILRI was actively involved in the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) and the Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference. Both of these high-level events were organized by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).

With this week’s workshop in Nairobi, ILRI is strengthening its research collaboration with German institutions.

I’m delighted that ten scientists from three outstanding German institutions—the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) and the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin)—are becoming further acquainted with ILRI’s research agenda and are able to visit ILRI’s research campus and station, with their extensive laboratory and fieldwork facilities.

The two main objectives of this week’s ILRI-German workshop are to further strengthen research cooperation between the two institutions and to identify some specific common research ideas and priorities—in the areas of human and animal health—that can be addressed in joint future projects.

—Dieter Schillinger, Assistant Director General for ILRI Biosciences Research

About ILRI

With its headquarters in Kenya, ILRI pursues the goal of strengthening food safety in Africa and minimizing poverty by researching better and sustainable methods for handling livestock. Among the main areas of its research are the control of diseases in livestock, the increase of livestock productivity and the maintenance of the genetic diversity of livestock breeds. ILRI is a member of CGIAR, in which organizations from governments, the private sector and civil society have joined forces all over the world.

About BfR

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientifically independent institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Germany. It advises the Federal Government and Federal Laender on questions of food, chemical and product safety. The BfR conducts its own research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.

This text version is a translation of the original German text which is the only legally binding version.

Read the press release from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment on BfR’s website: Scientific cooperation in consumer health protection in Africa and Europe—BfR supporting international workshop in Kenya on the protection of human and animal health, 28 Feb 2018.