Preparing for Rift Valley Fever Vaccine Trials

The disease affects humans as well as animals, and can be deadly. In livestock, it causes abortions and high mortality in young animals.

William Wilson, a microbiologist in CGAHR's Arthropod-Borne Animal Disease Research Unit, is collaborating with researchers at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and ILRI. The group is studying mosquito populations at the Kenya Medical Research Institute for potential Rift Valley fever activity between outbreaks.

"We're laying the groundwork to conduct vaccine studies that will use ILRI researchers' expertise in immunology," Mr Wilson says.

Part of that groundwork includes building an infrastructure and developing tools to conduct large Rift Valley fever vaccine trials and diagnostic evaluations at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, he adds.