U.S. donates US$13.25 million to help U.N. contain outbreaks of bird flu in animals

The United States will donate US$13.25 million (Ђ10.4 million) to help the U.N. food organization contain outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in animals, the U.S. diplomatic mission said Thursday.

Photo: U.S. donates US.25 million to help U.N. contain outbreaks of bird flu in animals

The money will finance programs run by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in regions and countries, mostly in Asia, to build technical expertise, strengthen the surveillance of animals, expand early-warning systems and improve influenza response programs.

"It's the largest single donation by a donor country to FAO's avian influenza emergency program to date," said Carla Benini, spokeswoman for U.S. mission to the U.N. agencies in Rome.

The largest amount going to a single country is US$4 million (Ђ3.1 million) for Indonesia, followed by US$2 million (Ђ1.6 million) for Vietnam.

The virus has ravaged poultry flocks in Asia, Europe and Africa since 2003, and experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily between humans and spark a pandemic.

The strain has killed 128 people worldwide so far. It also is being blamed for the death or slaughter of some 200 million birds.

Most human victims were infected through direct contact with sick birds, and experts have pointed to the poultry trade as the area where the disease is easiest to manage.

The U.S. announcement came a day after a widely publicized spat between the United States and U.N. officials in New York, when U.S. Ambassador John Bolton strongly criticized U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown for a speech in which he accused the U.S. government of leaving Americans in the dark about the world body's good works.

Bolton demanded that Secretary-General Kofi Annan repudiate the rare public criticism by a U.N. official, and even suggested that the fate of the organization itself might be at stake. However, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Annan stood by Malloch Brown's speech.

Benini said Wednesday's events in New York had no bearing on the U.S. announcement to donate the funds to the U.N. agency in Rome, reports AP.

O.Ch.