The World Health Organization warned yesterday that more Asian countries are likely to suffer human cases of bird flu, while monks in Thailand prayed for millions of chickens slaughtered in the outbreak.

　　The disease has jumped to people in two countries so far - killing 14 in Vietnam and five in Thailand in cases mostly traced to contact with sick poultry - and has prompted culls in Asia of more than 50 million chicken and other fowl in a disaster for the poultry industry.

　　"It can be anticipated that human cases will also be detected in other countries where outbreaks in poultry are spreading," WHO said in a statement.

　　Governments around the world have slapped import bans on poultry from countries struck by bird flu, and although health experts agree with most restrictions - especially on the transport of live birds - they say that eating properly cooked chicken meat and eggs poses no danger.

　　Stripped of export markets and faced with wary consumers at home, some Asian governments are pushing hard to promote chicken domestically.

　　Government-ordered culls in Thailand have killed more than 26 million chicken, and officials there organized a Buddhist ceremony yesterday at the Agriculture Ministry to bless the souls of the dead birds. More than 100 Buddhist monks in yellow robes chanted the blessings.

　　"We feel guilty because we are Buddhist," government spokesman Prompol Sod-Eiam said. "(The ceremony) can make us feel relaxed and apologize to the souls of the dead chickens."

　　The ceremony also was an opportunity to promote poultry dishes: Officials served the monks chicken curry.

　　Seven other Asian countries also have reported bird flu outbreaks - Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, South Korea and China.

　　The United States last week confirmed an outbreak in the state of Delaware, prompting China yesterday to ban US poultry imports, which Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea had earlier done.

　　However, in Pakistan and the United States, the bird flu strain is milder than the H5N1 virus that has jumped to humans and taken death toll in Vietnam and Thailand.

　　The scope of the outbreaks is "historically unprecedented in their scale, geographical spread, and economic consequences," WHO said.

　　Cases in humans have largely been traced to direct contact with sick birds, and no human-to-human transmission has been confirmed so far.

　　But health experts fear the virus will infect a person already suffering from a human flu, and that viruses could swap genes creating a new hybrid with the deadliness of the avian variety and the contagiousness of the human variety. That could spark the next pandemic.

　　The broader the scope of the outbreaks in poultry, the greater the chances of people getting infected, the experts say.