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