Outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) began in several Southeast Asian countries in 2003, spread to Europe in 2005, and HPAI is now found in many countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. Globally, the numbers of poultry that died or were culled are counted in hundreds of millions, economic losses in tens of billions of US$.

Recent increases in the number of known cases of avian influenza (AI) transmission have raised concerns over the potential emergence of a human pandemic, which could have devastating effects on human health and livelihoods. The risk that a pandemic virus will emerge depends on opportunities for human exposure and infections, which will persist as long as the H5Nl virus continues to circulate in animals. With the present situation, the potential of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus to become transmissible among humans should be of serious concern to the global community.

In November 2005, concerned governments, technical agencies, and donors met in Geneva to plan an international response to the risks that Avian Influenza will harm human health and cause large-scale economic losses. As per the Beijing Conference in January 2006, all countries must urgently prepare for the pandemic. The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved up to $US 500 million in financing for the Global Program for Avian Influenza (GPAI) that will assist eligible countries. The World Bank is assisting and financing the Government of Bosnia Herzegovina to prepare an emergency operation under the Global Program on Avian Influenza (GPAI) in response the request for financing to address the Avian Influenza (AI) threat. The presence of cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1 strain) in domestic birds has been confirmed in 2006.