By Alistair Thomson DAKAR, Dec 3 (Reuters) - With Africa seen as the weak link in global efforts to prevent a bird flu pandemic among humans, health experts and donors aim to secure more funding at a summit in Mali this week and thrash out how best to spend it. The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza has spread from Southeast Asia to much of the rest of the world, killing 154 people who came into contact with sick birds. Scientists fear the mutating virus may gain the ability to jump between humans, triggering a deadly global pandemic. The Dec. 6-8 meeting in Mali's capital Bamako is the fourth global summit to gather funds to fight avian flu among animals and prevent an outbreak among humans. A conference in Beijing in January raised $1.9 billion in pledges, and United Nations pandemic and influenza coordinator David Nabarro said preparing the world for a pandemic will cost $500-$750 million for the next two to three years. "$1.4 billion has been committed," Nabarro told a conference in Boston on Friday. "We know precisely where the money has gone. We also know where the gap is," he said. Money that had not yet been spent was being held by various development banks which were unable to disburse funds quickly, he said. The Bamako summit includes a donor conference on Dec. 8 to review progress in disbursing the Beijing pledges and secure new funding commitments from donors at a special donor conference. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which along with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is taking a lead role in controlling infections among domestic poultry, has trained 40 experts in France to visit countries around the world and assess what each needs to do to combat bird flu. It aims to assess 105 countries around the world over three years, OIE Director General Bernard Vallat said last month. "If one country fails, all others will be at risk," the OIE said in a report released ahead of the Bamako conference. THE WEAKEST LINK Scientists judge any mutation of H5N1 allowing it to jump between humans is most likely to take place in Asia, where more people have died of the disease than anywhere else and millions of people live in close proximity with domestic birds. But they also fear Africa's weak veterinary and public health systems could allow outbreaks of existing H5N1 -- or a mutated version -- to go undetected longer, multiplying the measures needed to bring it under control. "Immediately eradicating an emerging disease as soon as it occurs will reduce the pathogen load as well as the cost of eradicating it several times," the OIE said. Even before any human-to-human pandemic, the cost of bird flu is soaring. World Bank and U.N. experts said last week that in addition to the $1.9 billion pledged in Beijing, as much as $1.3 billion more was needed to fund the campaign, including $500 million for Africa, the poorest continent. The experts said more money was also needed in the world's worst-affected country, Indonesia, where 57 people have died. Experts say securing extra funding is essential to making sure individual countries follow internationally agreed guidelines to reduce the risk to all. "If Indonesia is going to do what we want them to do, they are going to need cash," the U.N.'s Nabarro said. (Additional reporting by Maggie Fox in Boston)
