LIMA, March 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Bolivia has launched an anti-bird flu campaign, which will cost eight million bolivars (1 million U.S. dollars), Bolivia's national news agency said on Monday.

    The campaign, which is to be coordinated by the National Agricultural Health and Food Safety Service (Senidag), will monitor some 600,000 agricultural businesses in the South American country, the report said.

    Senidag chief Rodolfo Tonelli said that Bolivia will watch for migratory birds which could carry the illness, though as a landlocked country Bolivia is not among the main flight paths.

    The lethal bird flu, were it to occur, would be more likely to hit Bolivia's neighbors first, he said.

    The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of more than 140 million chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003,and has recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

    At least 97 people have died from the disease worldwide since 2003, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to figures provided by the World Health Organization. Enditem