BANGKOK, Feb. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The prevalent avian influenza had caused great damage to livestock production and threatened food security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf said Monday.

    "The spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza in several areas in Asia is a disaster for livestock production and a threat to human health," Diouf said at the opening ceremony of a regionalfood security meeting held here from Monday to Tuesday.

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

    Those affected mostly were small and middle poultry producers around the region, said the FAO chief, adding that this would alsohampered the process of the UN agency's efforts to reduce hunger and poverty.

    Besides, many of the countries having outbreak report were developing countries that were lack of enough resource, expertise and equipment to tackle the epidemic, Diouf told reporters.

    "Stopping this avian influenza is a very important element in our strategy for fighting hunger and poverty," he said.

    FAO itself had mobilized some 5.5 million US dollars to help those in need to fight the disease, he noted, calling for more international aid and cooperation to help the affected countries out of crisis.

    But he said so far there was no accurate figures as how much resources were needed to restore the sector of livestock production.

    Statistics released by FAO earlier February showed that more than 450 million birds had been culled in Asia excluding China, about some 0.7 percent of the region's total inventory.

    Most poultry producers hit by the epidemic in the region are small family-style farmers, who are especially vulnerable against the disease.

    Even in Thailand, which has the potential to accelerate the trend toward the industrialization of poultry operation among affected countries, a total of some 2.5 million small chicken farmers are still the major chunk of the kingdom's poultry industry. Enditem