12 nations band together to fight off H5N1 threat

Twelve West African nations on Thursday pledged to work together to fight the deadly H5N1 virus and called on the international community to back a joint emergency fund dedicated to the battle against bird flu. In a statement issued after two days of talks in the Senegalese capital, the group of nations - two of them bordering Nigeria, the only bird-flu-hit country in Africa to date - agreed on “the need for a concerted and coordinated approach in setting up national campaigns” against the virus. To this end they agreed to set up immediately a 12-member ministerial tracking committee and designate a group of experts who will meet by end March in the Malian capital Bamako to draw up proposals for a regional response to the threat of avian influenza. The experts are to submit their plan at an April meeting in Abuja to be organised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The signatories - Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo - also proposed the creation of an emergency regional intervention fund deposited at the African Development Bank. “We appeal to the international community to contribute to this fund,” the statement said. Coordination is a good way forward, a European diplomat who asked not to be identified, told IRIN. “A joint effort means there is a single representative to talk to, a single structure and a financial system.” The talks opened on Wednesday as Nigeria confirmed that the highly pathogenic strain of the virus had spread to a seventh state in Nigeria, including the capital. “Failing containment, this plague could destabilise African societies,” warned Bernard Vallat, Director General of the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The focus of the battle to contain H5N1 in West Africa must be poultry farms, Vallat said. “Migratory birds will eliminate the virus, as they have done for centuries.” To stop the spread of the virus to poultry, governments need to ensure totally transparent information, speedy detection and diagnostic facilities and a system of financial compensation, the OIE chief said. In Rome on Wednesday, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said that a regional disaster was looming despite strong control efforts taken by the Nigerian authorities. The FAO was advising the government to prepare for a targeted vaccination campaign, said Joseph Domenech, FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer. This would require the mobilisation of several thousand private and public Nigerian veterinarians and the support of the international donor community. FAO has allocated about US $1 million to support surveillance and control activities in Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Tunisia. Nigeria’s poultry population is estimated at 140 million, with backyard farmers accounting for 60 percent of poultry producers. A dose of chicken vaccine costs between 5 and 20 US cents.