Bird Flu Spreading in West Africa #UN

A highly contagious strain of avian flu is spreading across
West Africa, decimating poultry farms and stoking fears the virus will
jump from birds to humans, the U.N.'s food agency warned on
Monday.
Markets and farms in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and
Ghana have been hit with the deadly H5N1 virus over the past six
months, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
In Nigeria alone, 1.6 million birds have been killed by the virus or culled
to stop its spread since last year, the FAO said, damaging the
economy and robbing citizens of a relatively cheap source of protein.
H5N1 bird flu first infected humans in 1997 in Hong Kong. It has
since spread from Asia to Europe and Africa and has become
entrenched in poultry in some countries, causing millions of poultry
infections and several hundred human deaths.
Other West African countries including Benin, Cameroon, Mali and Togo
have not identified bird flu cases and need to continue monitoring the
situation to help prevent its spread, the FAO said.
Local veterinary officials have been urged by the U.N. to try to trace
where infected animals were sold to find sources of the outbreak in
order to halt its spread.
Poultry production has grown rapidly across West Africa in the past
decade, the Ivory Coast alone has seen output expand by more than 60
percent, but regulatory systems haven't kept pace, the FAO said.
The organisation is asking donors for $20 million to respond to the
avian flu outbreak and to help prevent its spread.