FAO’s Deputy Director-General Godfrey Magwenzi said this while briefing Member States in Rome on Tuesday.
The official called for urgent action to strengthen biosecurity, surveillance and rapid-response mechanisms to curb the outbreak.
Magwenzi stressed that the crisis threatened to have “serious impacts on food security and food supply in countries, including loss of valuable nutrition, rural jobs and income, shocks to local economies, and of course increasing costs to consumers.”