20.07.2015

Fears are growing that without timely intervention to stem outbreaks of the highly virulent avian influenza virus H5N1 across West Africa, further spread across the region and beyond is inevitable, FAO said today.
To this end, the agency is calling for $20 million for prevention and response activities.
The call follows outbreaks of the virus in poultry farms, markets and family holdings in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.
The outbreak comes as countries across West Africa are still recovering from, and in some cases still battling, Ebola. Avian influenza could trigger a mass die-off of chicken – a nutritious and inexpensive source of food for many people– with detrimental impacts on diets and on the economy of the region, exacerbating an already difficult situation.
While the first incursion of the H5N1 in West Africa occurred in 2006 it was eliminated by 2008. In late 2014, however, the virus was re-introduced in Nigeria, where it spread rapidly in the following three months - to date more than 1.6 million birds have been culled or have died from the virus.