Avian Flu Efforts Help Lift Poultry Ban

USAID-sponsored studies and training contributed to a change in regional trade policy.
In 2006, animal trade – primarily targeting poultry -- was banned between Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire following an outbreak of Avian Influenza (AI).  Four years later, with no more signs of AI, the agricultural ministries of both countries simultaneously lifted the ban. USAID was instrumental in bringing this about.

In late 2009, the Expanded Agribusiness and Trade Promotion (USAID E-ATP) program completed an in-depth assessment of the poultry value chain in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Mali.  Throughout 2010 the program brought together private and public sector actors, including veterinarians, to discuss the assessment findings, identify options for removing the bans, test for AI, implement bio-safety best practices, and advocate for the development of bilateral agreements to eliminate trade bans and for concomitant completion of the World Animal Health Organization’s AI-free self-declaration process.

These efforts led to a meeting August 16-19, 2010 between the ministers in charge of animal resources in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire.  They concluded that the health, sanitation, veterinary, bio-safety, and commercial measures undertaken by the two governments and the poultry industry in both countries had reversed the spread of the disease.  They then announced that the four-year ban on poultry trade was lifted, effective immediately, thus reversing the hardships inflicted on egg and chicken producers, buyers, sellers and consumers in both countries.
USAID will continue to work so that similar bans are lifted between Ghana and Burkina Faso, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, and ultimately all over West Africa.