BANGKOK, Feb 23: The spread of bird flu has been a "disaster" for Asia's livestock industries and threatens the region's efforts to eradicate hunger, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)said on Monday.

Director-General Jacques Diouf also called for improved regional and international collaboration to curb the outbreak which has hit 10 Asian nations and killed 22 people.

"The spread of the highly-pathogenic avian influenza in several areas of Asia is a disaster for livestock production and a threat to human health," Mr Diouf told a meeting on poverty and food security here.

"Although it has not happened yet, the so-called bird flu presents a risk of evolving into a dangerous human pathogen, and a serious hazard to food security and food safety," he added.

A cull of over 80 million chickens has been carried out in a bid to contain deadly H5N1 bird flu which has hit Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

Taiwan, Pakistan and parts of the United States and Canada have reported weaker strains of the disease. While earlier this month the FAO warned some Asian nations had been slow to respond to the bird flu crisis, the Senegalese Diouf expressed hope the outbreak could be brought to heel.

"There is nothing uncontrolled," he said of the bird flu crisis. "We believe that with necessary cooperation, with mobility of resources and our scientific knowledge, we will be able to control it."

Mr Diouf stressed that while eradication of the disease was the FAO's "top priority", the agency was concerned about the economic impact of the virus, particularly on Asia's impoverished rural populations.

"Stopping this avian influenza is a very important element in our strategy for fighting hunger and poverty," he said. "We recognize that if animals have to be killed, if exports have to be slowed down, and if poor people cannot rely on those productions to improve their conditions of life, the disease naturally is a negative factor," he told reporters.

Thailand, Asia's largest poultry exporter, and Vietnam are the two countries worst-hit by the outbreaks which have severely battered the poultry industries there.

Communist-run Vietnam, where 15 people have died of bird flu, faces an acute economic crunch, according to the World Bank. Last week the bank estimated that the culling of all Vietnam's poultry to contain its bird flu outbreak could cost 1.8 per cent of gross domestic product, or $690 million in economic losses.

Mr Diouf would not predict how much it would eventually cost to contain the spread of bird flu, but said the FAO has already spent $5.5 million to fight the disease.

He said the agency was also demanding better coordination among Asian nations to prevent and fight disease. "The extent of the current outbreaks of avian influenza clearly demonstrates the need for improved regional collaboration and communication," he said, adding that better surveillance and early response mechanisms were critical.

In addition, countries could turn the crisis into an opportunity to address issues like the need for sustainable agricultural practices and building up healthy farming systems that would improve food security and safety.

Veterinarians from over 20 countries are to gather in Bangkok from Thursday for an FAO-sponsored meeting to discuss the economic impact of the bird flu crisis, strategies to control the disease, and how to rebuild shattered poultry industries. -AFP