China has confirmed 21 bird flu outbreaks in nine provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, Yin Chengjie, vice minister of agriculture, told a news conference in Beijing yesterday, calling the situation "severe."
The outbreaks - linked to the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus - killed 144,624 birds, and more than 21 million fowl were slaughtered as a precaution to keep the disease from spreading.
Migratory and wild birds are also dying in record numbers from the virus, Yin said, without providing figures.
Migratory birds are believed to be the prime carriers of the disease.
Yin said the outlook for the nation's battle against the bird flu epidemic remains grim.
The virus appears to be unusually virulent as it is killing not only chickens as it did in the past but also water birds such as ducks and geese.
Yin said the epidemic also poses a growing threat to humans as the first cases of bird flu on the Chinese mainland were reported recently.
The fact that a large proportion of China's poultry is raised in the backyards of rural homes under rudimentary conditions makes it difficult to control the disease, he said.
China has a long way to go to improve its avian flu prevention and control mechanisms at the grassroots-level, Yin said.
He called for greater efforts to prevent and control the bird flu epidemic and take stronger measures to prevent human infection.
Jia Youlin, the ministry's chief veterinarian, said 60 percent of China's chickens have been vaccinated.
He said that vaccines developed domestically are capable of containing the virus and preventing it from spreading.