Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), said on Monday that he believes the world community is capable of containing the spread of the deadly bird flu virus.

The H5N1 virus that was responsible for the deaths of millions of birds and caused some 123 human cases remained relatively less mutative since there have been millions of human exposures to the virus over the past two years, Vallat told Xinhua when attending a three-day global meeting on bird flu and human pandemic flu in Geneva.

"A global outbreak of human influenza is not imminent or inevitable so far, and I'm optimistic about controlling the avian flu virus," he said.

The animal health agency chief called on the international community to help the bird flu-hit countries to vaccinate all their poultry populations with a view to preventing the virus from acquiring the ability to be transmitted from human to human, and sparking the outbreak of human influenza.

More than 400 animal and human health experts, senior policy makers, economists and industry representatives participated in the meeting to work toward a global consensus to control the H5N1 bird flu virus in domestic animals and prepare for a potential human flu pandemic.