VZCZCXRO4648
OO RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #0501/01 0610700
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 020700Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4769
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RHFMISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHRO/USMISSION UN ROME 0048
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC//USDP/ASD-HD//
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000501 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR OES NANCY POWELL 
USDA FOR FAS/OA, FAS/DLP, FAS/ICD AND FAS/ITP 
USDA ALSO FOR APHIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KFLU EAID AMED EAGR NI
SUBJECT: FEB 28 NIGERIA AVIAN FLU UPDATE 
 
REF:  ABUJA 480 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: A donors' meeting noted progress on 
approving plans, procedures and guidelines in the animal, 
health and outreach functions, but noted continued gaps in 
coordination and information. Surveillance is stepping up in 
the South, but enforcement of movement bans is still 
lacking.  Poultry consumption remains severely depressed. 
End Summary. 
 
February 27 UN Donor Meeting 
----------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) At the February 27 UN donor meeting, UNDP said it 
would do an electronic update every two days. In the animal 
health report, FAO noted the confirmation of Nasarawa and 
Yobe for AI, but not the type.  Padua had now confirmed H5N1 
in Bauchi, Plateau, Kano and the FCT.  Field guidelines had 
been approved that day for release for culling, 
disinfecting, and protecting households.  The GON had not 
made a decision re vaccinating birds, but FAO/OIE/IBAR had 
contingency plans in place to kick start vaccination if the 
GON decided to go ahead. 
 
¶3. (SBU) CDC gave the human health report. The team at Vom 
was be training twelve lab technicians in three sets of four 
for human and animal testing over the next two weeks. WHO, 
CDC, USAID and World Bank would work together to ensure the 
need for reagents was covered.  To get a better picture of 
the progress of the epidemic, the lab in Vom needed to 
prioritize testing by focusing on samples from suspected 
outbreaks in new areas rather than new farms in areas with 
known outbreaks. Surveillance was very challenging, with no 
confidence that the current system would catch human cases. 
Currently there is no testing, and thus not even negative 
information. Many people were exposed, but they were not 
being followed up on actively. WHO noted that capacity 
building at the state level would be necessary to improve 
surveillance. Procedures and processes had been developed 
and would be presented at the Kaduna meeting of State 
officials. Both identifying cases and then moving that 
information quickly up the chain would be challenges. 
 
¶4. (U) UNICEF reported that the Ministry of Information had 
approved the outreach strategy. Donors asked that donor 
coordination be strengthened in outreach activities.  UNICEF 
agreed to host a meeting of donors on March 2, after the 
Kaduna trip. CDC reported that an social ethnographer was 
arriving February 28 to work on the outreach campaign. 
UNICEF was working with the Ministries of Health and 
Education and plans to monitor behavior changes.  FAO noted 
the importance of keeping the Ministry of Agriculture linked 
into the public outreach campaign. 
 
Coordination 
------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Though improving, WHO and others noted that 
coordination among the GON Ministries and with the 
international partners still need to improve. Not all 
parties were informed of the time and place of meetings and 
so not all the right people were in the right meetings. 
Sometimes the Ministers delegated staffers who were not 
empowered to make decisions and who did not report back on 
meetings, again leaving gaps.  The Federal-State gap also 
continued to be a serious problem. He asked for any 
suggestions on helping improve coordination, including among 
the international partners. UNDP provided the first draft of 
the assistance matrix, and asked all partners to begin 
filling in their program plans.  The updated matrix would be 
distributed electronically on March 3. The ADB was releasing 
a grant $700,000, to WHO and FAO for immediate needs for AI. 
The Japanese were providing the GON Naira 100 million for 
short term needs, and were trying to identify priorities. 
DFID reported their 15,000 PPEs were in country and that 
they had identified WHO activities DFID could fund. 
 
FAS Reports 
----------- 
 
ABUJA 00000501  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶6. (U) The agricultural attache spoke on Feb. 27 with the 
president of the Poultry Association of Nigeria who said 
that in Kano State on Feb. 25-26, deaths of poultry 
continued at the same pace.  Kano currently was enforcing 
its prohibition on the sale of eggs or poultry. 
Communications in other affected northern states were poor, 
so the poultry situation in those states may be worse than 
is apparent. 
 
¶7. The agricultural attache met on Feb. 27 with the Lagos 
State commissioner of agriculture.  The commissioner noted 
his ministry's efforts to combat the spread of AI in the 
state and said that although this had not happened, he was 
taking steps to prevent it, including: Placing surveillance 
teams at border posts to stop birds from entering Lagos 
State by road.  A spot visit to the border post on the 
Ibadan-Lagos expressway, however, revealed there is no 
effective enforcement of the restriction on birds' movement 
into Lagos State.  While revenue collectors were at the 
border post, no member of the surveillance team was present. 
The official said state officials were making surveillance 
visits to farms, poultry abattoirs, and markets to look for 
possible signs of an AI outbreak; training farmers on what 
symptoms to look for and where to report their findings; 
conducting public-enlightenment campaigns through posters, 
handbills, and the public media; and organizing frequent 
workshops. 
 
¶8. (U) The agricultural attache reported that the chicken 
market at Onipan, Lagos, is now a shadow of its old self, 
operating at less than 20% of capacity.  One seller said he 
received new supplies of local chicken from Kebbi State on 
Feb. 25.  Most of the market's cages were empty, largely 
because of low demand. 
 
¶9. (U) The agricultural attache visited upscale retailers in 
Lagos on Feb. 25-26 and found a continued depressed market 
for poultry products.  Consumers continue to express 
concerns about eating poultry products despite media 
campaigns by the state and federal government, as well as by 
Nigeria's poultry industry.  Retailers reported a decline of 
roughly 80% in poultry sales because of the AI outbreak. 
CAMPBELL