Chantal Yvette Kaboré-Zoungrana (née Kaboré) is a Burkinabé

animal nutritionist An animal nutritionist is a person who specializes in animal nutrition, which is especially concerned with the dietary needs of animals in captivity: livestock, pets, and animals in wildlife rehabilitation facilities. The science of animal nutriti ...

and

biosecurity Biosecurity refers to measures aimed at preventing the introduction or spread of harmful organisms (e.g. viruses, bacteria, plants, animals etc.) intentionally or unintentionally outside their native range or within new environments. In agricult ...

expert. She is a professor at the

University of Ouagadougou The University of Ouagadougou (UO; ) is a university located in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Founded in 1974, it was officially renamed in 2015 as l’Université Ouaga 1 Professeur Ki-Zerbo. The UO consists of seven Training and Research Units (UF ...

and former head of the national Burkina Faso National Biosafety Agency (''Agence Nationale de la Biosécurité'').

Academic career

Kaboré-Zoungrana studied for her doctorate at the

Pierre and Marie Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University ( , UPMC), also known as Paris VI, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, in 1982. She earned a further doctorate in her home city at the

in 1995. While she was based at Nazi Boni University, Kaboré-Zoungrana investigated the effects of plant nutrition on livestock, including measuring the health of sheep consuming native plants ''

Afzelia africana ''Afzelia africana'', the African mahogany, afzelia, lenke, lengue, apa, or doussi, is a Myrmecophyte tree species in the family Fabaceae. Range It occurs in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DRCongo, Ivory Coast, G ...

'', ''

Pterocarpus erinaceus ''Pterocarpus erinaceus'' is an endangered tree species native to the Sahelian region of West Africa. It is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It is used for fuel wood, fo ...

'' or ''

Khaya senegalensis ''Khaya senegalensis'' is a species of tree in the Meliaceae family that is native to Africa. Common names include African mahogany, dry zone mahogany, Gambia mahogany, khaya wood, Senegal mahogany, ''cailcedrat'', ''acajou'', ''djalla'', and '' ...

'' when obtained during different seasons''.'' She was promoted to full professorship in 2008 in the Rural Department of the

. Kaboré-Zoungrana has at different times served as Head of the Animal Production Department, Director of the Institute of Rural Development, Director of the Institute of Nature and Life Science at the university. Kaboré-Zoungrana is Fellow and Member of the Board of the National Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Burkina Faso, and was elected a Fellow of the

African Academy of Sciences The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit, pan-African learned society formed in 1985. The AAS elects fellows ( FAAS) and affiliates. The AAS also awards the Obasanjo Prize for Scientific Discovery a ...

in 2018.

Biosecurity

In 2008 Kaboré-Zoungrana became Director-General of the National Biosafety Agency. As part of this role Kaboré-Zoungrana announced the trialling of genetically modified cotton in association with

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed ...

, an important crop for Burkina Faso, in 2011. However the agency under her leadership also did not renew Monsanto's license to grow

Bt cotton Bt cotton is a genetically modified pest resistant plant cotton variety that produces an insecticide to combat bollworm. Description Strains of the bacterium ''Bacillus thuringiensis'' produce over 200 different Bt toxins, each harmful to diffe ...

in Burkina Faso amid concerns over quality, actual-vs-predicted gains and financial benefits for farmers. She has published on how to advocate and educate the use of

genetically modified crop Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of ''Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of se ...

s in sub-Saharan Africa, where many countries have banned the use of these crops. She oversaw the implementation of a Target Malaria project to release sterile male mosquitoes, carrying a

gene drive A gene drive is a natural process and technology of genetic engineering that propagates a particular suite of genes throughout a population by altering the probability that a specific allele will be transmitted to offspring (instead of the Mende ...

to spread the sterility through the native population, in rural areas of Burkina Faso in order to reduce the mosquito population. In 2019 Kaboré-Zoungrana also opened a new National Biosafety Laboratory on the Institut de l'Environnement et Recherches Agricoles campus in

Ouagadougou Ouagadougou or Wagadugu (, , , ) is the capital city of Burkina Faso, and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the List of cities in Burkina Faso#Largest cities, country's largest city, wi ...

, alongside Prof Alkassoum Maiga, Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation. Kaboré-Zoungrana retired from this role in 2019 and was succeeded by Prof Nicolas Barro.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabore-Zoungrana, Chantal Burkinabe scientists Animal nutritionists Women nutritionists Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences Academic staff of the University of Ouagadougou University of Ouagadougou alumni Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Burkinabe people 20th-century women scientists 21st-century women scientists