ECOWAS SAYS PREPARING TO MEET AVIAN-FLU CHALLENGE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000524

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR OES NANCY POWELL
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: ECOWAS SAYS PREPARING TO MEET AVIAN-FLU CHALLENGE

REF: ABUJA 517


1. Summary. Ambassador met March 2 with ECOWAS Executive
Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas, who noted with concern AI's

SIPDIS
advance in Nigeria. Chambas said ECOWAS countries needed to
have national strategies, after which regional ones could be
created. He said Nigeria's "lessons learned" would be
invaluable for the ECOWAS ministerial conference scheduled
for March 25-28 in Abuja. ECOWAS additionally would host a
technical meeting in Bamako on March 16 and 17. ECOWAS has
asked the African Development Bank to examine the regional
implications of AI and to allocate money to a regional fund
to support bird-culling operations. End summary.


2. The Ambassador, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
chief of party, economic officer, and political-military
officer met March 2 in Abuja with Mohamed Ibn Chambas,
executive secretary of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS). The CDC chief of party showed
Chambas a series of maps, based on information provided by
the Government of Nigeria (GON),illustrating avian
influenza's (AI) rapid spread in Nigeria. Chambas noted
with concern this graphic representation of the virus's
advance. In response to Chambas's question, the CDC
official replied that a vaccine could be used on birds at
large commercial farms but that the GON was still
determining its policy on using inoculations.


3. The Ambassador said AI has spread in Nigeria from the
northeast to the southwest, after apparently being brought
by wild birds. The CDC official noted Nigeria's control of
AI "has not been highly successful" so far. The Ambassador
cautioned that the lack of success elsewhere in controlling
AI means countries and organizations must be prepared to
address AI over the long term.


4. Chambas and the CDC official discussed the safe handling
and preparation of poultry. Chambas noted he earlier had
been misinformed about correct procedures, reflecting a
larger and more general misunderstanding of the safe
handling and preparation of potentially infected poultry.
The CDC official warned of the economic impact as well as
the health impact of AI. Chambas noted the region's major
deficiency in protein and how AI would only worsen the
already insufficient diet of the region's citizens.


5. Chambas said he met earlier in the day with Nigeria's
agriculture minister. He said ECOWAS countries needed to
have national strategies, after which regional ones can be
created. He observed that the organization must learn from
its member states' experiences, and that Nigeria's "lessons
learned" would be invaluable for the ECOWAS ministerial
conference scheduled for March 25-28 in Abuja. Chambas said
ECOWAS additionally would host a technical meeting in
Bamako, Mali, on March 16 and 17, to build on the results of
two days of ECOWAS talks in Dakar in late February. Chambas
also said ECOWAS has asked the African Development Bank to
examine the regional implications of AI and to allocate
money to a regional fund to support major bird-culling
operations and to provide compensation to affected families.


6. Economic officer and agricultural attache met earlier on
March 2 with Dr. Aubin Sawadogo, ECOWAS livestock program
officer. He said ECOWAS was working to prepare a sub-
regional emergency action plan, and that each member state
already had a national action plan. (Comment: The
assertion that each ECOWAS member state has a national
action plan is over-optimistic, based on Embassy Abuja's
familiarity with the GON's current difficulty in formulating
a workable response to AI. End comment.) Sawadogo
acknowledged that ECOWAS "had a lot of problems" in
contending with AI, especially a lack of funding and a
shortage of technical expertise. He explained that ECOWAS
deferred to its members states on whether they should adopt
bird inoculations.


7. Sawadogo praised the GON's cooperation with ECOWAS on AI.
He said ECOWAS would give Nigeria USD 1 million to combat

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AI. Sawadogo acknowledged, however, that the AI outlook for
Africa as a whole was "very bad."

Comment
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8. Embassy Abuja is encouraged that ECOWAS officials,
including Executive Secretary Chambas, clearly had knowledge
and understanding of the situation concerning avian
influenza and the need to address this threat. West Africa
will benefit from ECOWAS's using the experiences of member
states already afflicted by AI to strengthen the region's
response.
CAMPBELL