Thu May 25, 4:29 PM ET

The donated items include essential equipment such as sprayers, rubber boots, GPS units, first aid kits, gloves and disinfecting brushes, it said.

At the handover ceremony, US ambassador John Campbell said "we have not given up the fight to stamp out this horrible disease."

Campbell noted that Nigeria was there for the American people during the Katrina disaster, "so when your government made these supply shortages known to us, we were only too happy to help," the statement said.

The outbreak last January of avian influenza in Nigeria poses a potential threat to human life and could cause severe economic losses in the poultry industry, the text said.

To date, there have been confirmed reports of the disease on poultry farms in more than a dozen Nigerian states, including Lagos, the nation's economic capital.

More than 450,000 birds have died or have been killed following the outbreak across Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

The US Agency for International Development is working closely with the Nigerian government to address the economic growth and public health implications of the disease, the statement said.

USAID had sponsored two Avian influenza training workshops held in southwest city of Ibadan, and in Minna, capital of north-central Niger state, it added.