Jordan Willing and Able to Work on Avian Influenza

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
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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