FEB 28 NIGERIA AVIAN FLU UPDATE

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