A regional meeting of the World Health Organisation in New Caledonia has heard a change in farming practices would counter the threat posed by bird flu to the region.
The meeting in the territorial capital, Noumea, heard from the WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific, Doctor Shigeru Omi.
Dr Omi says farming practices in Asia are not well controlled.
He says in Western countries, ducks, chickens and humans do not mingle together.
And Dr Omi says unless the region addresses this fast it should expect more diseases to emerge and spread between different animal species.
Four people have died in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, from bird flu.
