US embassy cable - 04AMMAN1666

UNCLAS AMMAN 001666 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
CAIRO FOR AGRCOUN CHAUDHRY 
PASS TO DEPT OF AG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR, ETRD, ECON, JO 
SUBJECT: HIGHLY PATHOGENIC AVIAN INFLUENZA DETECTED IN A 
TEXAS FLOCK - JORDAN 
 
REF: STATE 39598 
 
1.  Econoff accompanied by FAS specialist delivered reftel 
demarche to Ministry of Agriculture Secretary General Awni 
Taimeh on Feb 26.  They reviewed reftel points and left 
behind a non-paper on subject as prepared by Agrcoun 
Chaudhry, who was in Amman for a USDA-sponsored conference. 
 
2.  Professor Taimeh relayed that the Government of Jordan 
Animal Health Committee was prepared to ban the import of 
U.S. chicken based on the report, but only shipments that 
originated in the U.S. after the date of the initial incident 
in Texas.  The GOJ had already banned imports from a number 
of Asian countries reporting outbreaks of highly pathogenic 
Avian influenza and had recently added Canada to the list, he 
confirmed. 
 
3. Taimeh asked that if the U.S. sends information to the 
Paris-based OIE, that a copy be forwarded to the Government 
of Jordan Ministry of Agriculture.  (P.O. Box 2099, Amman, 
Jordan:  FAX: 962-6-569-2515.)  He was interested to know the 
measures taken in surveillance and control of the highly 
pathogenic avian influenza to ensure that it does not spread. 
 When asked if Jordan could not consider this to be a 
regionalized outbreak (that would not necessarily require a 
ban on all imports from the U.S.), Taimeh replied that the 
GOJ would need to be assured that the measures taken by the 
U.S. conformed with the OIE principles for "recognizing a... 
zone free from a given disease infection."  In this case, 
Taimeh defined the zone as "the other 49 states," although 
Econoff took pains to describe the outbreak as occurring at a 
single farm in Gonzalez County, Texas. 
 
4.  Jordan imports chicken from the U.S., especially 
mechanically deboned chicken meat (MDM).  One factory last 
year imported at least 1,500 tons of MDM chicken. 
GNEHM