US embassy cable - 05AMMAN8041

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 AMMAN 008041 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USAID FOR GLOBAL HEALTH/K HILL, D CARROLL 
USDA FOR APHIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO, EAGR, KHIV, PGOV, AMED, JO 
SUBJECT: Jordan Willing and Able to Work on Avian Influenza 
 
Ref: State 175585 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary: Jordan is willing and able to collaborate 
with foreign partners on avian flu.  The Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs supports international engagement, and the Ministry 
of Agriculture has staff knowledgeable about avian flu, and 
has laboratory capacity as well.  The Ministry of Health is 
alert to the issue, and is engaged in planning and 
coordination with other relevant ministries, but is 
concerned about its laboratory capability.  Embassy's AID 
office, Environment, S&T and Health (ESTH) Hub, and Regional 
Medical Office are working together to collect and share 
information both within post and regionally.  End summary. 
 
MFA Supports Collaboration 
-------------------------- 
 
2.  (U) Emboffs have made several calls on GoJ officials to 
ascertain the level of interest and knowledge in Jordan on 
avian flu, and have pushed the issue in a variety of 
conversations.  Sabah Al-Rafie in the International 
Organizations Bureau of Jordan's MFA told ESTHOff October 4 
that Jordan is interested in international collaboration on 
avian flu.  The MFA is coordinating participation by 
Washington-based Jordanian diplomats in reftel Senior 
Officials meeting of the International Partnership on Avian 
and Pandemic Influenza (IPAPI), and can be expected to 
support international engagement on avian flu. 
 
Ag Ministry Has In-House Virologists, Special Budget 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
3.  (U) Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Assistant Secretary 
General for Animal Science Faisal Awawdeh told ESTHOff and 
ESTH FSN that MOA has operational divisions for training, 
animal science, production, and laboratory science.  Emboffs 
also established contact with MOA Poultry Health Chief Ziad 
Al-Momany and Virology Unit Chief Nadim Amarin. 
 
4.  (SBU) Awawdeh said Jordan has taken several steps to 
prevent, assess and control avian flu.  The Animal Health 
Bureau has been given a special budget by the GoJ for 
collecting samples from around Jordan and sending them to an 
OIE (World Animal Health Organization) laboratory in Italy 
for analysis; for procuring equipment and supplies needed to 
identify diseases; and for training staff to identify and 
classify viruses.  Two of his staff were sent to Italy for 
month-long courses in identification and classification of 
avian flu and Newcastle disease.  These staffers in turn 
have done onward training within the MoA.  Awawdeh expressed 
his view that other countries in the region lacked Jordan's 
capacity to deal with avian flu (comment: a claim which the 
Embassy is not capable of assessing).  Awawdeh said that the 
MOA began an outreach program in 2003 to improve awareness 
among farmers of avian flu.  The MOA worked through the 
veterinarians' association on this program. 
 
Dry Climate, Lack of Pigs May Work to Prevent Avian Flu 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
5.  (U) When asked about the chance of H5N1 avian flu 
appearing in Jordan, Awawdeh said that Jordan's hot, dry 
climate may play a role in preventing the virus from taking 
hold here.  He said that the H5N1 virus seems to prefer a 
cool, wet environment.  He also noted the relative absence 
of pigs in Jordan - and the lack of humans and poultry 
living in close proximity to each other - as factors working 
against the development of human-transmissible avian flu in 
Jordan.  (Pigs are speculated to play a role in the mutation 
and transmission of avian flu viruses, according to the 
World Health Organization). 
 
6.  (SBU) Awawdeh said Jordan has "closed" poultry houses, 
unlike what he called a "barracks and range" system in the 
Netherlands, Russia and Asia.  In those more open systems, 
he said, migratory birds would have a greater chance to 
transmit virus to commercial flocks.  He added that wild 
birds migrate through the Jordan Valley, away from the 
upland desert areas where the poultry industry is centered. 
He said that these poultry farms use groundwater for their 
flocks and that the farmers chlorinate the water, reducing 
the chance of spreading virus through the birds' water 
supply.  (Comment: We take his comment at face value for the 
larger farms, but think it unlikely that smaller farmers 
chlorinate their water.  End comment.) 
 
Industry Dominated by a Few Large Firms 
---------------------------------------- 
 
7.  (SBU) Jordan's commercial poultry industry has some 
2,200 poultry farms for broilers, 300 for egg laying and 100 
for "parent stock" (raising birds for sale).   Awawdeh said 
that there are a few large, vertically integrated poultry 
companies, with most of the remainder being medium sized. 
He said that through the large companies, MOA can quickly 
reach out to virtually the entire poultry industry in 
Jordan.  Jordanian poultry farmers "know their business," 
according to Awawdeh, who compared their knowledge favorably 
to that found in Jordan's sheep industry. 
 
8.  (U) Awawdeh said that in addition to domestically 
produced chicks, Jordan imports day-old chicks from Holland, 
France and the United States.  Jordan also imports frozen 
chicken meat from Brazil and frozen meat from the U.S. for 
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.  He said Jordan is self- 
sufficient for eggs and chicken meat, and that it exports 
some low quality chicken meat to the Gulf. 
 
Animal Health Clinics at District Level 
--------------------------------------- 
 
9.  (U) Awawdeh described at some length Jordan's animal 
health system and its reporting channels.  He said there is 
at least one veterinary clinic in each district in Jordan, 
and a total of 45 clinics.  There are also 28 mobile 
clinics.  Each clinic is staffed by a veterinarian and an 
agriculturalist.  People bring animals to the clinics, and 
the veterinarians sometimes do house calls at the farms. 
The clinics have the capability of doing post mortems and 
taking samples which are sent to the MOA lab. 
 
10.  (U) District animal health clinics send monthly reports 
to the veterinary department at the MOA, and can phone or 
fax in an emergency.  MOA in turns reports to the World 
Animal Health Organization (OIE).  Awawdeh said there is a 
mortality report every two weeks on poultry that can trigger 
a rapid response.  MOA works with slaughterhouses to take 
routine samples that are analyzed for the presence of 
viruses. 
 
H9N2 Avian Flu Found in Jordan 
------------------------------ 
 
11.  (U) Awawdeh noted that Jordan has H9N2 avian flu virus, 
which is non-pathogenic and is not on the list of viruses 
that must be reported or "notified" to the OIE.  Dr. Amarin 
said that Jordan has a vaccination program against the H9N2 
virus, and that the MOA has antigens available for the more 
highly pathogenic H7 and H5 strains.  He estimated that 
perhaps 10% of the commercial flock is vaccinated against 
the H9 virus.  He added that the MoA has not seen any 
changes in mortality rates in Jordan's poultry flocks. 
 
National Vaccination Program 
---------------------------- 
 
12.  (U) In Jordan's national poultry vaccination program, 
Awawdeh said, owners buy vaccine on the commercial market. 
Vaccination for Newcastle disease is compulsory; 100% of the 
birds on commercial farms are vaccinated.  He added that 
other vaccinations would depend on the owner and the 
physical location of the farm. 
 
Ag Ministry Interested in Technical Cooperation 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
13.  (U) Awawdeh said Jordan is interested in learning more 
about avian flu in the United States, and asked that Embassy 
send the MOA information on the topic.  The MOA is curious 
about H7 strains of avian flu, which our contacts say has 
low pathogenicity in the U.S. but is highly pathogenic 
elsewhere.  They are also interested in exploring 
cooperation on technical issues, and are of course 
interested in any U.S. assistance on training and equipment 
related to avian flu assessment and prevention.  They are 
interested in research on migratory birds, millions of which 
transit Jordan, and which can carry avian flu strains. 
 
Farmers May Not Be Reporting Accurately 
--------------------------------------- 
 
14.  (SBU) Awawdeh conceded that some of Jordan's farmers 
are afraid of reporting diseases for fear of financial 
repercussions.  This comment was confirmed by an October 2 
conversation with Dr. Hana Zakaria, a University of Jordan 
poultry specialist, at an Embassy reception.  Zakaria said 
that the larger poultry farms have staff veterinarians and 
accurately report their mortality statistics.   Smaller 
farms, in contrast, are more prone to under-reporting and 
failure-to-report illnesses among their flocks.  She said 
that when a university graduate student was doing research 
into poultry mortality, the student encountered resistance 
from smaller poultry farms to sharing information, and in 
some cases was given clearly fraudulent data showing 
impossibly low mortality rates.  Zakaria said that 5% 
mortality would be an average figure for Jordan. 
 
Ministry of Health = "No Problem" With Coordination 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
15.  (U) Ministry of Health (MOH) Secretary General Sa'ed 
Kharabsheh told ESTHOff and ESTH FSN September 12 that MOH 
has good contacts with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 
(CDC) that will be used if emergency situations arise.  He 
said CDC had a resident advisor at the MOH until recently, 
and that a replacement is expected soon.  He strongly 
supports international collaboration on emerging infectious 
diseases like avian flu and said "we cannot bury our head in 
the sand" about reporting diseases. 
 
Countries Unaware, Lack Capacity 
-------------------------------- 
 
16.  (SBU) Kharabsheh said that WHO's Eastern Mediterranean 
Office (EMRO) had a meeting in Amman in early September to 
discuss disease surveillance and emergency preparedness for 
a pandemic, including avian flu.  He noted that avian flu 
was a "big threat," and that each country needed to prepare 
itself.  Kharabsheh said he is concerned that people are not 
aware of avian flu, and he expressed doubts that most 
countries are at all prepared.  He said the labs in several 
countries in the Middle East are "deficient."  During the 
September WHO EMRO meeting, he said they had discussed how 
to establish regional reference labs and collaboration 
centers. 
 
Health Ministry: Lab Capacity Seen as a Weakness 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
17.  (SBU) Kharabsheh said that his principal concern on 
regional preparedness for avian flu was lab capacity, 
especially with respect to diagnosing and analyzing viruses. 
His second concern was the strength of disease surveillance 
systems.  Beyond medical issues, he said logistics could 
also be a problem, such as a shortage of funds to pay for 
vaccines and a simple shortage of vaccines if a large demand 
emerged. 
 
Embassy Offices Engaged, Cooperative 
------------------------------------ 
 
18.  (U) A network of concerned USG elements present in 
Jordan has emerged to manage and share information on avian 
flu.  These include the Regional Medical Office (RMO), the 
Regional Environment, Science, Technology and Health Office, 
and USAID's Population and Family Health Office. 
Coincidentally, the spouse of an Embassy officer at post has 
extensive laboratory experience working with avian diseases. 
RMO is collecting information about flu preparedness within 
RMO's district (Jordan, Israel, Con Gen Jerusalem, Cyprus, 
Lebanon, Syria), and is discussing the possibility of 
organizing meetings on flu preparedness with 
Embassy/consulate nurses and other RMOs from the region. 
This cooperation will translate post's in-house expertise 
into rapid information for USG personnel, broad, interagency 
networking with Washington agencies, and effective outreach 
to other NEA posts. 
19.  (U) Comment: In post's estimation, Jordan has some 
expertise and good facilities in both the animal and human 
health sectors, and would be a solid partner in regional 
cooperation on avian flu because of its own capacity and its 
contacts with U.S. counterparts. 
 
HALE