VZCZCXRO9774
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHHM RUEHJO RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA
RUEHPB RUEHRN
DE RUEHUJA #2800/01 2981456
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251456Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7581
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RHFMISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME 0032
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 002800 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA FAS WASHDC FOR FAA/RANDY HAGER 
USDA FOR APHIS/JOHN SHAW 
USDA FOR WAYNE MOLSTAD/OSEC 
USAID/W FOR AFR/WA ANGELA LOZANO 
SECDEF FOR //USDP/ASD-HD// 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFLU TBIO AMED EAGR EAID NI AVIANFLU
SUBJECT: NIGERIA OCTOBER 25 AVIAN FLU UPDATE 
 
REF:  ABUJA 2777 
 
ABUJA 00002800  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  The Government of Nigeria's (GON) response to the 
avian influenza (AI) remains limited but has demonstrated recent 
improvement.  Economic and USAID officers attended the October 18 
United Nations/foreign donors AI meeting in Abuja and met with 
representatives from the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN Food 
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the UK Department for 
International Development (DFID).  A DFID officer commented Nigeria 
so far had spent only $750,000 combating AI, despite much more money 
being available.  He noted the GON's lack of action on the issues of 
compensation to poultry owners and poultry vaccinations.  An FAO 
official reported a new outbreak of AI in southern Nigeria's Anambra 
State, which was diagnosed quickly and where the affected farm 
underwent rapid culling.  The Ministries of Agriculture and Health 
recently have improved their cooperation against AI.  End Summary. 
 
Slow Processing of Donor Funds 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Peter Hawkins, DFID Officer, said there remained an 
"unaccountable gap" between financial assistance made available to 
the GON to combat AI and the amount Nigeria actually processed and 
spent against the virus.  (Note: The World Bank so far has 
transferred $20 million to the GON for human/animal-health efforts 
against AI.  End note.)  Hawkins said it took the GON four to five 
months to complete the procedures needed to obtain the World Bank 
credits - and that the GON still had spent no more than $750,000 
against AI.  He observed the World Bank was concerned by the failure 
to use these funds and said the bank's Nigeria representative would 
review in January 2007 whether money not used by Nigeria should 
instead be reassigned to other countries.  Hawkins also criticized 
the GON's "policy vacuum" and lack of action on AI, especially in 
the areas of compensation to poultry owners and in failing to 
discuss whether to employ poultry vaccinations.  (Note:  The GON was 
supposed to complete by the end of June 2006 its review of its 
policy on compensation but has not yet done so.  End note.) 
 
New Outbreak in Ananbra 
----------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Tim Obi, FAO Nigeria AI Task Force Chief, reported a new 
outbreak of AI, in the Awka South Local Government Area in southern 
Nigeria's Anambra State.  At that farm, 255 birds out of 1,900 died 
before the remainder were culled.  Obi said an FAO-Ministry of 
Agriculture team would visit Anambra to investigate the outbreak. 
USAID officer Wayne Frank said later this outbreak appeared to be an 
isolated case in which a neighbor's cockerel got into the commercial 
flock in Anambra. 
 
¶4. (U) Obi noted that the animal side of Nigeria's AI reporting and 
surveillance system was working much better, as evinced by the 
Anambra outbreak.  The farm's owner reported poultry deaths on 
October 9.  A sample was sent to the Vom National Veterinary 
Research Laboratory in Jos and on October 10 the sample was 
confirmed as positive.  This was reported to the state government 
and to the farm's owner within 48 hours, at which point the flock 
was culled.  These actions demonstrated rapidity in sample 
collection, transmission, and diagnosis.  Obi also said the 
outbreaks in Lagos and Ogun States appeared to be under control, and 
that further testing would be carried out there to confirm this. 
 
¶5. (U) Obi recommended that the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) 
step up efforts to educate its members about biosecurity.  These 
measures included registering all poultry farms, the steps needed 
after culling and before restocking farms, and the dangers of 
poultry feedbags' transmitting AI.  Alberic Kakou, UNDP Resident 
Coordinator, directed Obi to put the PAN in contact with the U.S. 
Poultry Association to request that organization's assistance. 
(Note:  The PAN already enjoys close relations with the U.S. poultry 
industry through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 
market-development programs.  End note.) 
 
Areas of Improvement 
-------------------- 
 
ABUJA 00002800  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶6. (U) USAID officer Wayne Frank later observed that the GON's 
response to AI was improving overall.  The Ministries of Agriculture 
and Health were starting to work better together, both in their 
professional relations and as demonstrated by the near completion of 
Nigeria's joint AI response plan incorporating the GON's 
animal/human-health response efforts.  He noted also that the two 
ministries demonstrated improved cooperation at recent meetings of 
the GON's AI Technical Committee and AI Inter-Ministerial Steering 
Committee. 
 
Continuing Weaknesses 
--------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Frank noted also that many Nigerian poultry farmers still 
awaited compensation and were extremely angry at this delay.  He 
said the minister of agriculture had not succeeded in getting funds 
for compensation released quickly.  The USAID officer observed that 
the GON's new manual on compensation still needed some fine-tuning, 
as well as official government approval. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Nigeria's access to international funding for use against 
AI has outstripped for months its capacity to employ this, as well 
as the GON's political will to do so.  It remains to be seen whether 
the World Bank's willingness to reallocate funding, once the GON has 
been warned of this, will compel Nigeria to use substantial 
financial resources against AI.  On the positive side, Nigeria may 
have turned a corner in its efforts against AI, and it appears the 
GON is moving in the right direction, however slowly.  The World 
Bank's cancellation of AI funding, however, likely would undo much 
of this recent improvement. 
 
FUREY