Resumen de Avian influenza: FAO appeals for $20 million to help tackle avian influenza in West Africa

• THE Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is appealing for US $20 million to help it to respond to outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus on poultry farms, in markets and on family holdings in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and Ghana.

  The first incursion of H5N1 in West Africa occurred in 2006, and was eliminated by 2008. However, the FAO reports that the virus was reintroduced into Nigeria in late 2014 and spread rapidly over the following three months; more than 1.6 million birds have since …