MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines will deploy hundreds of troops to hasten a cull of about 600,000 fowl, the farm minister said on Wednesday, as part of efforts to rein in the Southeast Asian nation’s first outbreak of bird flu.

There has been no case of human transmission after the flu was detected on a farm in the province of Pampanga, about 75 km (47 miles) north of the capital Manila, but it has spread to about 36 other farms and nearly 40,000 birds have died.

“I have asked the Philippine army to provide us with additional warm bodies to help us in depopulating the farms,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol told a news conference.

“Six hundred thousand is no mean job. Our personnel are facing a difficult task and we lack people.”

Pinol said the government had about 200 men in the area, but fewer than 20,000 birds had…