The member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted on Tuesday, September 28, 2021, a new common strategy to fight against transboundary animal diseases. Thus, the Community announces a regional emergency fund to support the initiative.

The countries of the Community area set in motion a regional mechanism for the prevention and fight against zoonoses, which are in particular avian flu, foot-and-mouth disease, peste des petits ruminants and rinderpest, which affect sectors such as livestock. As part of the new common strategy to fight against transboundary animal diseases, ECOWAS will set up a regional emergency fund. "In the ECOWAS region, livestock is estimated at 320 million head, including more than 160 million small ruminants and more than 80 million donkeys and camels, representing the first economic good of exchanges in space to more than 500 billion CFA francs ($893 million) per year between the countries of the Sahel and the coastal States", indicated to this effect Sékou Sangaré, Commissioner in charge of Agriculture and the Environment of ECOWAS. . The approach follows a meeting of ministers in charge of agriculture and animal husbandry which made it possible in particular to take stock of the epidemiological situation and the fight against these diseases in the sub-region, in support of a key sector in community space.