by Mark McCord = (PICTURES) =

HONG KONG, Nov 3 (AFP) - Cash set aside to improve farming in Southeast Asia may be redirected to help the region's poorer countries battle bird flu, the general secretary of ASEAN said Thursday. The proposal is part of a coordinated effort by the 10-members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as they struggle to fend off an avian influenza pandemic, the bloc's secretary general Ong Keng Yong said. In an interview with AFP, Ong said money in a special fund set up to improve farm hygiene could be redirected to compensate farmers who lost their poultry flocks in culls during outbreaks of the deadly disease. This would ensure that the poor farmers were less likely to cover up outbreaks among their flocks. "The money is there for animal health issues; we are now trying to see if we can redirect these resources to help these poorer economies to compensate farmers after culls," he said. "The farmers are poor and they are ignorant of the dangers and when their animals fall ill or die, they do things the local way -- they cook them or sell them," Ong added. "They won't dispose of the rest of the flock because they fear losing their entire livelihoods." Outbreaks of the H5N1 flu virus have decimated the poultry industries of many of the regional grouping's 10 members, most of whom are developing economies that depend heavily on agricultural production. More than 60 people have died in outbreaks over the past two years in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia -- all ASEAN member nations. Ong, who was in Hong Kong on a scheduled visit to discuss economic matters with local government officials, said ASEAN members were sharing information on a daily basis through a communication channel called Focal Point. The system was put together as an early warning alert during the global outbreak of the pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003. "We have a strong conviction in this system ... we are quite confident it is in place," said Ong. The secretary general conceded, however, that member nations had neither the cash nor the resources to stockpile antiviral drugs and vaccines to counter a pandemic, and called on richer nations to help. "I feel that the international community could help by providing additional resources," Ong said. "We need cold hard cash to pay the compensation for the farmers, also to buy the vaccines and to provide the mass education." The World Health Organisation has predicted that a bird flu pandemic could kill millions of people around the world. Ong said ASEAN's frugal resources would be best employed in preventative measures such as early warning alerts and close surveillance. But in the event the virus mutates into a form easily transmissible by humans and a pandemic erupts, he said ASEAN nations would be at the mercy of the WHO and other world bodies like the Food and Agriculture Organisation. "Many of our hospitals are just not prepared to handle such sudden crowding," he said. "We would have to follow what the WHO and FAO had said in order to organise ourselves." mmc/ben