US embassy cable - 05LAGOS1863

UNCLAS LAGOS 001863 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PASS HHS FOR OGHA STEIGER/BHAT 
CDC FOR BLOUNT/JANI/LEDUC/NCOX/ARTHUR 
GENEVA FOR WHO 
USDA/APHIS/US/NCIE FOR BURLESON 
USDA/FSIS FOR RHARRIES 
USDA/FAS/CMP/DLP FOR M FRANCOM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO, SENV, EAGR, AMED, CASC, EAID, XX, NI, WHO, FAO 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA CANNOT DETECT H5N1 AVIAN FLU 
 
REF:  A. STATE 216147  B. ABUJA 2234 
 
1.  Summary.  AgAttache met with the acting director of 
Nigeria's Department of Agriculture and Pest Control 
Services to discuss the GON's plan for contending with an 
outbreak of AI.  Senior GON policymakers are keenly aware 
that an AI outbreak would very likely destroy Nigeria's 
poultry industry, given the country's absence of basic 
safeguard systems in most poultry operations across Nigeria. 
Nigeria has no national facility that can either detect or 
diagnose H5N1 avian influenza.  End summary. 
 
2. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) attach met with 
Dr. Junaidu A. Maina, acting director of Nigeria's 
Department of Agriculture and Pest Control Services, which 
is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 
in Abuja on December 1.  AgAttache presented demarche (first 
ref) on Nigeria's ban of poultry products allegedly in 
connection with avian influenza (AI), and discussed the 
ministry's role in the Government of Nigeria's (GON) plan 
(second ref) for contending with an outbreak of AI.  The 
GON's Department of Agriculture and Pest Control Services 
has primary responsibility for animal disease control and 
management at Nigeria's federal level.  Dr. Maina is the 
GON's Chief Veterinarian Officer. 
 
3. On October 24, 2005, the GON established a general 
ministerial committee consisting of the Ministers of 
Agriculture, Health, and Science and Technology; leaders of 
the Nigerian House of Representatives and Senate; 
representatives of the World Health Organization and the UN 
Food and Agriculture Organization; and Nigeria's director 
general of state security.  The GON tasked the committee 
with developing a national action plan to combat AI. 
Subsequently, respective ministries formed technical sub- 
committees of their own to draft specific recommendations 
and action plans for consideration by the general committee. 
In the case of the Ministry of Agriculture, its technical 
committee, which consists of animal-disease experts and 
other technical experts, is still in the process of drafting 
specific recommendations for consideration. 
 
4. According to Chief Veterinarian Maina, senior GON 
policymakers are keenly aware that an AI outbreak would very 
likely destroy Nigeria's poultry industry, given the 
country's absence of basic safeguard systems in most poultry 
operations across Nigeria.  This is because the Ministry of 
Agriculture lacks the necessary resources to establish 
effective control measures against AI. 
 
5. Maina also said that the Ministry of Agriculture 
maintains 12 wetland surveillance stations throughout the 
country where migratory birds are known to populate each 
year.  The Ministry of Agriculture sends samples from these 
locations to the National Veterinary Research Institute 
(NVRI) in Jos, Plateau State.  The NVRI has diagnostic 
facilities that can detect the presence of AI.  That 
laboratory, however, has no facility that can characterize 
technically the disease by its various strains -- for 
example, low pathogenic or highly pathogenic.  Nigeria thus 
currently has no national facility that can either detect or 
diagnose H5N1 avian influenza. 
 
6. Despite its membership in and commitments to the World 
Trade Organization, Nigeria banned in July 2002 the import 
of poultry products to protect its growing poultry industry. 
The GON then in June 2004 banned the import of eggs and day- 
old chicks under the guise of fears associated with AI. 
Some poultry imports, albeit in small quantities, continue 
to be smuggled into Nigeria through its border towns. 
 
7. Post will continue to pursue the GON for the removal of 
import restrictions on poultry and other products, and 
monitor and report on the government's capability to respond 
to an outbreak of AI. 
 
Browne