ROME (Reuters) - China, Indonesia and African nations do not give international bodies full reports on bird flu outbreaks because they lack funds to monitor the disease, a World Animal Health Organization (OIE) expert said on Wednesday.

The deadly H5N1 virus has killed 127 people since it re-emerged in Asia in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It has spread especially fast in the past six months, moving into the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

"We think the countries may be underreporting, but they do not do it deliberately," the OIE´s avian influenza coordinator, Christianne Bruschke, told a news conference. "We are concerned about China, Indonesia and Africa," she said.

Bruschke said weak veterinary services, poor financing in general and lack of financial incentives for farmers to report the poultry disease in the two Asian countries and in Africa are to blame for the underreporting.

She said that in many cases farmers were not aware of the disease and the necessity to report it. They should be educated and given financial compensation for culling birds, otherwise they would continue to breed and sell them, spreading the virus.

In Indonesia, where in some regions the virus has become endemic, or a permanent feature, it has become more difficult to report separate outbreaks, she said.

"That might be a reason that there is a higher virus presence in certain regions than we know," she told reporters on the sidelines of a bird flu conference in Rome, organized by the OIE and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease. But a sudden flurry of human bird flu cases in Indonesia has raised concern

about virus mutation and human-to-human transmission.

ROME (Reuters) - China, Indonesia and African nations do not give international bodies full reports on bird flu outbreaks because they lack funds to monitor the disease, a World Animal Health Organization (OIE) expert said on Wednesday.

The deadly H5N1 virus has killed 127 people since it re-emerged in Asia in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It has spread especially fast in the past six months, moving into the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

"We think the countries may be underreporting, but they do not do it deliberately," the OIE´s avian influenza coordinator, Christianne Bruschke, told a news conference. "We are concerned about China, Indonesia and Africa," she said.

Bruschke said weak veterinary services, poor financing in general and lack of financial incentives for farmers to report the poultry disease in the two Asian countries and in Africa are to blame for the underreporting.

She said that in many cases farmers were not aware of the disease and the necessity to report it. They should be educated and given financial compensation for culling birds, otherwise they would continue to breed and sell them, spreading the virus.

In Indonesia, where in some regions the virus has become endemic, or a permanent feature, it has become more difficult to report separate outbreaks, she said.

"That might be a reason that there is a higher virus presence in certain regions than we know," she told reporters on the sidelines of a bird flu conference in Rome, organized by the OIE and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease. But a sudden flurry of human bird flu cases in Indonesia has raised concern

about virus mutation and human-to-human transmission.