Ivan Vasquez-Barraza ’22
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Sustaining Diverse Income Streams in an Urban Setting: Poultry Farming and Newcastle's Disease in Antananarivo*
I participated in creating a trade-network map of the smallholder poultry farms in Madagascar that highlighted the origin and final destination of chickens that end up in markets in the capital of Antananarivo. The purpose of the trade network was to identify the chickens that were infected with deadly Newcastle’s disease — which can wipe out an entire flock — and where they came from. To create this map, the team I worked with traveled to various markets, surveyed poultry vendors, collected biological samples from chickens, and analyzed those samples in the lab. This internship taught me how to collect data and conduct research, and it introduced me to a different culture that provided me with a lot of valuable experience that I greatly enjoyed.
* This internship is connected to the PEI Urban Grand Challenges project, “Sustaining Diverse Income Streams in an Urban Setting.”
2019
Water and Health
Metcalf Lab, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University - Antananarivo, Madagascar
C. Jessica Metcalf, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs; Fidisoa Rasambainarivo, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton Environmental Institute