Mr Joel Odero
Joel's PhD project with supervision and mentorship from Dr Barbara Blacklaws (University of Cambridge, UK) and Drs Rosemary Sang and David Tchouassi (ICIPE, Kenya) is investigating the role of ticks in the circulation of arboviruses and non-zoonotic pathogens of emergent public health importance along livestock migratory routes in Kenya. This knowledge is important because of the recent outbreaks of arboviruses in these areas. Furthermore, there is limited capacity to diagnose these infections in Kenya as many cases often go undetected and/or mistaken for common parasitic or bacterial diseases due to the nonspecific nature of their clinical manifestation. The output from this work will provide information on the epidemiology and ecology of these tick-borne zoonotic diseases for public health use.