VZCZCXRO7003
OO RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #0576/01 0721550
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 131550Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4873
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RHFMISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHRO/US MISSION UN ROME 0062
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 000576 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA FOR FAS/OA, FAS/DLP, FAS/ICD AND FAS/ITP 
USDA ALSO FOR APHIS 
USAID REGIONAL HUB OFFICE ACCRA 
CHERYL FRENCH APHIS DAKAR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KFLU EAID AMED EAGR NI
SUBJECT: MARCH 13 NIGERIA AVIAN FLU UPDATE 
 
REF:  ABUJA 552 
 
¶1. (U) Summary.  The GON announced March 9 that an 
additional state, Ogun State, was confirmed positive for the 
H5 virus.  An Ogun official said the state is investigating 
the outbreak at a commercial poultry facility in Akute-Oja, 
near the border between Lagos State and Ogun State. 
Southwestern Nigeria accounts for about 80% of the country's 
commercial poultry production.  Industry officials said 
there is a severe glut of eggs, with prices falling 63%. 
Nigerians' consumption of poultry products continued to 
decline, while prices of fish and beef increased 20%.  End 
summary. 
 
Ibadan workshop on AI; efforts in the southwest 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶2. (U) The Government of Nigeria (GON) announced March 9 
that an additional state, Ogun State, was confirmed positive 
for the H5 virus.  The Agricultural Attache visited Ibadan's 
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture on March 9 
to attend a USAID- and French Embassy-funded workshop on 
combating the avian influenza (AI) organized by the Ministry 
of Agriculture in cooperation with the Pan-African Program 
for the Control of Epizootics.  About 350 people attended, 
including poultry-industry representatives, GON 
veterinarians, and animal scientists.  The workshop provided 
an opportunity for southwestern state veterinarians, the 
poultry industry, and the GON to share strategies on 
carrying out emergency action plans, building capacity for 
veterinary services, and monitoring and surveillance.  (A 
second, similar training session for northern Nigeria is 
scheduled for March 15-16 in Minna, Niger State, and is 
supported by USAID.) 
 
¶3. (SBU) In a conversation with the Agricultural Attache at 
the margins of the meeting, an Ogun State veterinary 
official said that the state was investigating the AI 
outbreak in a commercial poultry facility in Akute-Oja, near 
the border between Lagos State and Ogun State.  Samples had 
been taken for laboratory testing.  If this instance was 
confirmed as being H5N1, this would be the first reported 
case in southwestern Nigeria, which accounts for almost 80% 
of the country's commercial poultry production.  The Ogun 
official said the state was carrying out active surveillance 
of its poultry operators. 
 
¶4. (U) Workshop attendees said Nigeria's egg glut was 
compounded by the ban on cross-border exports to neighboring 
Benin and Togo.  Prior to the outbreak of AI, Nigeria 
exported a substantial quantity of its eggs to Benin and 
Togo.  The Poultry Association of Nigeria's (PAN) 
southwestern national vice president and the group's Oyo 
State chapter president both termed the egg glut severe. 
Farmers have been forced to drop the price of eggs from 400 
naira (about USD 3.10) to 150 naira per crate of 30 -- 
nearly a 63% price cut.  Parent-stock poultry farmers are 
varying their feed rations to reduce fertile egg production 
because of the low demand for day-old chicks. 
 
¶5. (U) Oyo State's chief veterinarian told attendees that 
Oyo, to boost surveillance, was recruiting additional staff 
as well as providing appropriate backup logistical support. 
Oyo State, which is located in the southwest, was working 
closely with the University of Ibadan's Faculty of 
Veterinary Medicine to use its newly established diagnostic 
laboratory to screen poultry farms in the state.  Oyo State 
has established a Technical Rapid Response Team, which will 
handle all reports of suspected AI cases, and its new 
Management Committee will examine policies that could help 
salvage Oyo's poultry industry. 
 
FAS Lagos reviews effects on Nigeria's poultry industry 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶6. (U) AI has harmed significantly Nigeria's poultry 
 
ABUJA 00000576  002 OF 002 
 
 
industry since late February 2006, according to the Foreign 
Agricultural Service (FAS) in Lagos.  Consumers are avoiding 
poultry products because of their mistaken belief that 
eating poultry products could kill them.  As of March 8, 
about 500,000 birds on 126 farms in affected areas had been 
culled and the farms decontaminated, and an estimated 3.5 
million day-old chicks worth more than 300 million naira 
(USD 2,325,000) were destroyed every week.  Chicken 
processors are holding large quantities of unsold 
inventories and poultry farmers are not restocking because 
of the disease.   Although the GON has begun paying 
compensation of 250 naira (about USD 2) per culled chicken, 
this amount likely is inadequate.  Industry sources contend 
it costs 500 naira (about USD 4) to rear a chicken. 
 
¶7. (U) The FAS forecast Nigeria's poultry production for 
2006, taking into account current circumstances, at 150 
million birds (about 195,000 tons), down from 155 million 
birds (about 200,000 tons) in 2005, with this decrease 
caused by AI.  Total production could fall substantially in 
2006 if AI remains unchecked, although poultry farmers 
already have taken steps to reduce stock that might remain 
unsold.  Although reliable data on the poultry sector as a 
whole is limited, anecdotal industry estimates suggest that 
100,000 Nigerians are engaged in commercial poultry 
production, either as producers, feed manufacturers, 
processors, or marketers.  The poultry sector constitutes 
about 5% of Nigeria's agricultural gross domestic product, 
or about USD 1.3 billion. 
 
¶8. (U) The FAS estimated Nigerians' annual per capita 
consumption of poultry meat at one kilogram (equivalent to 
about two-thirds of a chicken).  Also, Nigerians' per capita 
egg consumption is about 20 eggs per year.  Nigeria's 
overall poultry-meat consumption in 2005 was roughly 220,000 
metric tons (MT), while current output from Nigeria's family 
poultry system accounts for as much as 110,000 MT of this 
amount, with commercially reared birds adding 90,000 MT. 
The remaining 20,000 MT are smuggled into Nigeria, in 
defiance of the government's ban on poultry imports. 
Chickens make up the lion's share of all poultry consumed in 
Nigeria, followed by turkeys, ducks, and guinea fowl. 
 
¶9. (U) Nigerian fast-food restaurant operators reported a 
60% decline in chicken sales since AI's appearance, 
according to the agricultural attache.  The country's fast- 
food operators, whose main ingredient is chicken, have cut 
back their operations significantly or switched to serving 
fish and beef.  Fish and beef, however, are growing 
increasingly scarce, as their prices reportedly have risen 
20%. 
 
¶10. (U) Although the UN Food and Agriculture Organization 
recommends vaccination as a tool the GON should use to 
control AI, the GON still strongly opposes bird inoculations 
because of the poultry industry's fragmented nature. 
Industry contacts reported that some large poultry operators 
already are vaccinating their birds, despite the 
government's calls against this.  The GON is supposed to 
announce by March 17 its policy on bird vaccinations. 
 
¶11. (SBU) The GON's response to date has focused on 
arresting the spread of AI in and near urban areas, the 
Agricultural Attache reported, while small rural poultry 
farmers remain unaware of the virus.   Nigeria currently has 
no designated centers with adequate resources where farmers 
can lodge reports of suspected AI cases, especially at the 
state- and local-government levels.  The Nigerian public 
remains inadequately informed about AI and how to deal with 
it.  There is no clear understanding by local farmers of 
measures the government is taking to contain AI's spread, 
while the GON's ban on poultry movements between Nigerian 
states continued not to be enforced. 
CAMPBELL