The top veterinary officials of four West African countries are to join forces to battle the possible spread of avian influenza in the region.

Closing a two-day ground-breaking meeting June 5 in Sunyani, a regional capital close to the Ghana-Côte d’Ivoire border, the chief veterinary officers of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo issued a statement calling for better communication and information exchange among countries of the region to control outbreaks of avian influenza.

The purpose of this two-day Agricultural Ontology Service workshop is to bring together Information and Knowledge Managers from Agricultural Institutions, who are working on development of semantic standards and their application. This workshop will focus on assessing the work done since the first workshop of 2000 in Rome to date. The achievements of the past seven years and the lessons learnt will be used to pave the road for the next steps.