ILRI MSc Graduate Fellowship: Cross-sectional Study of Abortions in Dairy Cattle in Nandi County at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

About the position

• The dairy industry is an emerging sector of the livestock industry in many lower and middle-income countries (LMICs) particularly in Africa. Structured dairy cattle breeding programs, such as the African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) project, are currently being implemented for improved performance and production. The ADGG program aims to assist farmers to improve cow management, improve animal and herd productivity as well as increasing income for smallholder dairy farmers.
• A challenge to productivity in dairy farming is abortion or early calf death. Previous work has indicated that the incidence of abortion may be as high as 10%. Pathogens that cause abortion may also be zoonoses placing the livestock workers at risk. Abortion causing pathogens include Brucella, Neospora, Toxoplasma gondii, Rift Valley fever virus, Leptospira and Coxiella burnetii.
• In order to address this major challenge for dairy producers and to reduce both the direct losses from mortality and retarded growth as well as the indirect loss of genetic potential, the research proposes to conduct a longitudinal study of abortion in cows. This will generate the disease and infection phenotypes that can then be linked to the ADGG genotypes to deliver genomic tools to develop resistance/tolerance to tropical diseases.
• The successful MSc fellow will conduct the baseline cross-sectional study to the determine the prevalence of abortion causing pathogens in a population of dairy cattle in Nandi County, Kenya.

Responsibilities of the fellow:

• Recruitment of dairy farmers to participate in the baseline cross-sectional study.
• Collect survey data using ODK.
• Collect samples from cattle.
• Run serological and molecular tests for pathogens such as Brucella, Leptospira and BVD.
• Conduct statistical analysis of data.
• Preparation of research proposal and thesis for purposes of academic defense.

Minimum requirements

The ideal candidate should:

• Hold a Bachelor of Science preferably in veterinary science, biomedical science or biotechnology
• Be enrolled in Master of Science program in a recognized university preferably in epidemiology or public health.
• Possess field experience recruiting participants, data collection, working in multidisciplinary teams
• Have working experience using ODK.
• Demonstrated laboratory experience with PCR and undertaking serology analysis specifically ELISA.