ILRI PHD Graduate Fellowship: Antimicrobial Drug Quality and Supply Chains at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

About the position

Antimicrobials are essential medicines for human and animal health and welfare. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens global public and animal health, as well as economic and food security with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) being disproportionately affected.  Both the World Health Organization and World Organization for Animal Health have developed a prioritized list of critically important antimicrobials for human and veterinary medicine, respectively. This ranking allows for focused management of specific antimicrobial classes to preserve their efficacy and to reduce the use of critically important human antimicrobials in food animals and crops. Colistin is considered one of the last resort drugs to treat infections with multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, but this antibiotic is commonly used in livestock production for prophylaxis and growth promotion in LMICs.

Recent studies have estimated that more than half of the antimicrobials available on the African market are either substandard or counterfeit, raising concerns about ineffective treatment and exposure to sub‐therapeutic levels of antimicrobials, which has been shown to promote resistance amongst bacteria. Moreover, antimicrobials are distributed and accessed through informal, non-regulated supply chains, affecting traceability of these sub-standard drugs. To fill key knowledge gaps, this PhD will investigate the quality of selected antimicrobials sold in veterinary drugs stores in at least priority One CG One Health countries (e.g., Kenya, Bangladesh or Uganda), investigate policies and regulations governing importation, labelling and distribution of antimicrobials, and assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of various stakeholders in the antimicrobial supply chain. To answer these research questions, the candidate will use a combination of field epidemiology and laboratory techniques.

Responsibilities of the fellow:

• Conduct a literature review on antimicrobial drug quality in LMICs.
• Map the policy landscape around importation, labelling, distribution, and sale of veterinary antimicrobials in two priority LMICs.  
• Design a field and laboratory study to analyse the quality of selected antimicrobials sold for veterinary use.
• Conduct a survey on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of key stakeholders in the antimicrobial supply chain e.g., government officials, agrovet dealers, farmers, etc.
• Investigate if changes to antibiotic labelling influences customer purchasing habits.
• Write scientific papers and conference presentations on the results from the PhD studies
• Communicate findings to relevant stakeholders (government, extension officers, farmers, etc.)
• Provide supervision and guidance to field support staff and research assistants.

Minimum requirements for the ideal candidate

• MSc in Agricultural Economics, Veterinary Science, Animal Science, or Veterinary Public Health.
• An understanding of pharmacology, antimicrobial resistance, veterinary systems is advantageous.
• Previous research experience in intervention trials, economic evaluation and qualitative research methodologies is desirable.
• Experience in handling diverse datasets, data processing and statistical software such as R, Stata, SPSS, Matlab or Python.
• Ability to jointly work in a multi-national, multi-disciplinary team of scientists and technicians.
• Ability to supervise and guide research assistants and junior graduate students e.g., Bachelor or Masters level.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Based in Kenya full-time throughout the PhD programme with short research stays at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Location: ILRI – Kenya, with frequent in-country field travel and some travel abroad for fulfilment of PhD requirements at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Duration: 3 Years