Joseph Litamoi
Dr Joseph Litamoi (1956) passed away on the 8 January 2014 in Nairobi following a short illness.
Dr Litamoi’s international career takes us back to the 1990s when he was stationed at Pan-African Veterinary Vaccines Centre (PANVAC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as a vaccine quality control and certification officer for priority veterinary vaccines. While at PANVAC he was also involved in the training of veterinarians and technicians in various aspects of vaccine manufacture and quality testing in Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East.
Dr. Litamoi carried out several consultancies for USAID, AU-IBAR, IAEA, GTZ (GIZ), GALVmed, Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI) and Governments in many aspects of livestock development especially on strategies for management of TADs, laboratory diagnosis and vaccine production and development.
At the FAO ECTAD – Eastern Africa Unit, where he was employed from 2006 onwards, Joseph became the regional laboratory specialist; his main activities included coordination of the implementation of surveillance programmes for the early detection, prevention and control of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and other priority transboundary animal diseases (TADs). He was also entrusted with the establishment and maintenance of the epidemiological, diagnostic laboratory and wildlife surveillance networks and sub-networks for HPAI and other TADs.
Prior to working with FAO, Joseph was attached to the National Veterinary Research Centre of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) where he worked extensively in laboratory and field research that led to various adaptive research applications with special interest in pleuro-pneumonias (both CCPP and CBPP) and published extensively on this in book chapters, international conferences and peer-reviewed journals. He later worked at the Kenya Veterinary Vaccine Production Institute (KEVEVAPI) before joining FAO where he worked until his demise.
Joseph Litamoi will be remembered as an extremely creative and thoughtful scientist. His contributions to the veterinary profession and livestock development are unquestioned, and are reflected in his outstanding international reputation and many awards and honors that he received.
To his colleagues, Dr. Litamoi was much more than an outstanding epidemiologist and laboratory specialist. He will be remembered as a humble, warm and caring friend. We will surely miss him and our thoughts are with his family.
May his soul rest in peace.
