Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ROME1006
2006-04-04 07:16:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Rome
Cable title:  

AVIAN INFLUENZA: WEEKLY UPDATE ON FAO ACTIVITIES

Tags:  KFLU EAGR EAID CASC SENV SOCI TBIO FAO WHO 
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UNCLAS ROME 001006 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR IO/EDA, EUR/SE, EUR/WE, NEA/ENA, EA/SEA, OES/IHA
USAID FOR DCHA/OFDA GGOTTLIEB, PMORRIS; GH/KHILL, DCARROLL
AND BZINNER; AFR/MHARVEY, ALOZANO; EGAT A/AA JSMITH;
ANE/ACLEMENTS, K/CRAWFORD; EGAT/AG JYAZMAN AND JTHOMAS
USDA FOR OSEC STUMP/PENN/LAMBERT/CAINE,
FAS PETTRIE/HUGHES/CLERKIN, APHIS CLIFFORD/HOFFMAN
DAKAR FOR USAID/OFDA/RDAVIS AND JSCICCHITANO
ACCRA FOR USAID/WARP HBOTTEMBERG; KCOONEY
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH/USAID
HHS FOR OGHA (STEIGER)
BRUSSELS FOR USAID/PLERNER AND APHIS/PFERNANDEZ
PARIS FOR GCARNER
USEUCOM FOR ECJ4
VIENNA PASS APHIS
CAIRO PASS APHIS

FROM THE U.S. MISSION TO THE UN AGENCIES IN ROME

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFLU EAGR EAID CASC SENV SOCI TBIO FAO WHO
SUBJECT: AVIAN INFLUENZA: WEEKLY UPDATE ON FAO ACTIVITIES
#6 FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 31, 2006

REF: (A) 05 ROME 3949; (B) 05 ROME 3320; (C) 05 ROME 2979;

(D) 05 ROME 1142; (E) 05 ROME 3976; (F) 06 ROME 0087; (G) 06
ROME 0000 (sic); (H) 06 UN ROME 0315; (I) 06 UN ROME 0430;
(J) 06 UN ROME 0464; (K) 06 UN ROME 0626; (L) UN ROME 0678;
(M) 06 UN ROME 0766; (N) 06 UN ROME 0860
UNCLAS ROME 001006

SIPDIS

STATE FOR IO/EDA, EUR/SE, EUR/WE, NEA/ENA, EA/SEA, OES/IHA
USAID FOR DCHA/OFDA GGOTTLIEB, PMORRIS; GH/KHILL, DCARROLL
AND BZINNER; AFR/MHARVEY, ALOZANO; EGAT A/AA JSMITH;
ANE/ACLEMENTS, K/CRAWFORD; EGAT/AG JYAZMAN AND JTHOMAS
USDA FOR OSEC STUMP/PENN/LAMBERT/CAINE,
FAS PETTRIE/HUGHES/CLERKIN, APHIS CLIFFORD/HOFFMAN
DAKAR FOR USAID/OFDA/RDAVIS AND JSCICCHITANO
ACCRA FOR USAID/WARP HBOTTEMBERG; KCOONEY
GENEVA FOR NKYLOH/USAID
HHS FOR OGHA (STEIGER)
BRUSSELS FOR USAID/PLERNER AND APHIS/PFERNANDEZ
PARIS FOR GCARNER
USEUCOM FOR ECJ4
VIENNA PASS APHIS
CAIRO PASS APHIS

FROM THE U.S. MISSION TO THE UN AGENCIES IN ROME

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KFLU EAGR EAID CASC SENV SOCI TBIO FAO WHO
SUBJECT: AVIAN INFLUENZA: WEEKLY UPDATE ON FAO ACTIVITIES
#6 FOR THE WEEK ENDING MARCH 31, 2006

REF: (A) 05 ROME 3949; (B) 05 ROME 3320; (C) 05 ROME 2979;

(D) 05 ROME 1142; (E) 05 ROME 3976; (F) 06 ROME 0087; (G) 06
ROME 0000 (sic); (H) 06 UN ROME 0315; (I) 06 UN ROME 0430;
(J) 06 UN ROME 0464; (K) 06 UN ROME 0626; (L) UN ROME 0678;
(M) 06 UN ROME 0766; (N) 06 UN ROME 0860

1. Summary: On March 28, USMISSION UN ROME met with FAO
Animal Production and Health (AGA) and Emergency Operations
and Rehabilitation (TCE) Divisions staff to discuss
Azerbaijan; global Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)
expert needs; personal protective equipment (PPE) needs in
the West Bank and Gaza; and Emergency Center for Trans-
boundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Socio-economic and Policy
Working Group activities. FAO requested that:
-- A determination of needs in Azerbaijan be postponed until
after the April 12-13 FAO/OIE regional conference in Ankara;
-- A recruitment specialist be posted to Rome for a 12-month
detail to field multinational requests for rapid assessment
and rapid response team experts, while an IT specialist be
posted for a 3-month detail to help develop and merge the AI
global early warning system databases with other global
databases, and a crisis management center manager be
detailed for a physical review and determination of
operations center requirements;
-- PPEs are needed in the West Bank while a culling expert
will travel to Gaza after the Israeli elections this week;

and
-- the ECTAD Socio-economic and Policy Working Group is
currently collaborating with WFP on sharing GIS data to
improve knowledge of poultry keeping systems and poultry
keepers. End Summary
-------------- --
Azerbaijan Needs to be Determined After Ankara
-------------- --


2. On Azerbaijan:

-- FAO stated how difficult it has been to get the Azeris
to admit they have an HPAI problem. FAO reiterated concerns
over the major lack of transparency on all fronts. [Note:
AGA staff noted their frustration with Uzbek authorities as
well and the inability to obtain good quality information.
A regional Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) meeting being held
in Tashkent the week of March 24 should be able to garner
more collaboration on this front as well. End Note]
-- FAO also informed that the Tehran-based consultant who
was scheduled to begin a 5-6-month-long TDY on March 28th
has been facing difficulties in obtaining clearances for
Azerbaijan. FAO hopes the issue will be cleared up soon
after celebrations for the Iranian New Year have ended.
-- The Budapest-based FAO epidemiologist, Andrei Rostalnyy,
returned to Baku on March 30th to continue with
assessments. USMISSION UN ROME passed Rostalnyy's contact
details to USAID/Baku, which invited him to attend the
Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) meeting held on March

31. DTRA is looking to strengthen disease surveillance in
Azerbaijan and the meeting has been open to all partners,
including the World Bank.
-- When asked about needs in-country, FAO indicated there is
much need for building up laboratory capacity. Azerbaijan
would greatly benefit in having an expert dedicate between 4-
5 weeks of assistance to help get laboratory procedures
underway.
-- TCE reported on a March 28 meeting with representatives
from the Azeri Mission in Rome. The Azeri Mission was not
fully certain of its government's plan but clearly stated
the Government of Azerbaijan (GoA) is asking for help.
Apparently, the Azeri representatives had heard that the GoA
has circulated to donors in Baku a "shopping list" of items
it believes it requires to combat HPAI. The Mission
requested that FAO help develop a project proposal based on
FAO's initial assessment of needs. Relating to the
proposal, both AGA and TCE staff agreed it was too early to
tell exactly what the country needs, but indicated a full
package of assistance, including epidemiologists,
virologists, lab technicians, equipment, and lab upgrades,
would likely be required. Assessments are still ongoing as
are discussions with authorities on what they will be able
to accept and how the GoA intends to use funds. (Note: TCE
briefly elaborated on the difficulty it already faced with
the GoA, when, under its regional Budapest-based Technical
Cooperation Program (TCP),FAO provided emergency funds,
which the GoA wanted to use to purchase non-expendable
goods. End Note). FAO suggested the U.S. look to the
FAO/OIE Regional Meeting being held in Ankara April 12-13
for a clearer indication of needs, including experts, and
when to send them. FAO hopes that Azerbaijan's
participation in this meeting will yield more collaboration
and more transparency.

-------------- --
Global and Rome-based Expertise
-------------- --


3. When asked to provide more details on what FAO needs in
terms of experts worldwide, FAO stated that:

A) For the rapid assessment and rapid response teams, an
animal health recruitment specialist should be posted to
Rome as soon as possible for a minimum 12-month assignment
to help the Dutch consultant already on board to field
country requests, which have been characterized as "coming
out the woodwork." With this help FAO can better decide on
global needs. USMISSION UN ROME asked if FAO could provide
a matrix laying out expert needs for a more global view.
AGA indicated it had developed a similar table on 56
countries and would work to further develop it into a matrix
of expert needs. In general, FAO noted a global need for
laboratory technicians/diagnosticians;

B) A programmer/developer specialist for a 3-month
assignment to help develop the Global Early Warning and
Response System for Avian Influenza (GLEWS) database,
marrying it with other existing databases-bases, such as
FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS);
and

C) A Crisis Management Center manager to help determine
infrastructure needs at post in an effort to facilitate the
physical construction of the proposed operations center.
(Note: in preparation for a USDA/APHIS delegation's visit
to Rome April 3-6 to discuss staffing and operations center
needs, USMISSION UN ROME facilitated a teleconference
between FAO and USDA/Washington on March 31, during which.
FAO reiterated points A-C above.)


4. These three positions would support the Crisis
Management Center, which was described in the March 17
FAO/OIE draft paper. Before filling these positions,
particularly the manager of the Crisis Management Center,
FAO hopes to have another consultation with the donors to
whom that paper was circulated (U.S., EU, Netherlands,
Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and
Switzerland). FAO emphasized the need for continued
multilateral coordination on in support of the Crisis
Management Center.


5. TCE also noted that it is recruiting seven experts to be
based out of Rome for use in rapid response teams: four
epidemiologists, a laboratory diagnostician, a social
economist (already on board),and a communications
specialist. On March 30, a TCE staff member and an FAO IT
specialist traveled to Geneva to view the WHO situation room
and to Bern to meet with Swiss authorities to discuss
potential funding opportunities.

-------------- --
PPE and Other Needs in the West Bank and Gaza
-------------- --


6. TCE stated that, worldwide, PPEs are under production,
and that it had received an urgent request from the West
Bank for PPEs. A Tunis-based veterinary arrived on March 29
to meet with the ex Israeli CVO working on AI activities.
In addition, FAO has held discussions with authorities on
compensation issues and sent draft guidelines in preparation
for a national plan. FAO is planning to send a consultant
to Gaza after the Israeli elections to further assist in
culling efforts as well.

-------------- --
Socio-Economic Aspects of AI
-------------- --


7. USMISSION UN ROME also met with the Emergency Center for
Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Socio-economic and
Policy Working Group for a briefing. FAO formed this
multidisciplinary working group to promote a better
understanding of the human dimension of the development
challenges posed by AI. The group is composed of
economists, social anthropologists, epidemiologists,
livestock production experts and policy specialists and
undertakes a wide range of activities, including: estimating
the economic costs, impacts and control of HPAI; modeling
disease dynamics; identifying social and gender aspects of
disease impact and control on livelihoods and food security;
and developing rapid reconnaissance tools for socio-economic
assessments and guidelines for policy support in areas such
as compensation. The group is currently collaborating with
other UN agencies, including WFP on sharing GIS data to
improve knowledge of poultry keeping systems and poultry
keepers, and NGOs and IFAD on socio-economic assessments,
livelihoods impact analysis and humanitarian preparedness
preparation.


8. Of note, the group conducted a coping strategies case
study for Vietnam in the aftermath of the December 2003
outbreak. In conjunction with the Vietnam General Statistics
Offices (GSO),808 farms (industrial, commercial, small
commercial and backyard) were interviewed. Immediately
after the AI outbreak, a decrease of food intake was found
to be common among all categories, higher in larger farms
but probably more dramatic in smaller farms. Other
important findings included that culling was mostly
concentrated on larger farms (72 percent commercial and 85
percent industrial); and that the capacity of farms to
secure new loans to recover production was directly
proportional to the farm size and corresponded to about half
of the pre AI outbreak period. Interestingly, studies also
found that farmers who could afford it were apt to intensify
or completely switch to other agricultural enterprises like
pig raising.


9. USMISSION UN ROME will continue to disseminate widely
FAO activities to combat and control Avian Influenza.

Hall