One outbreak each struck in northwest China's Xinjiang and Ningxia regions while a third hit Yunnan province in the southwest, the state-run news agency said late Tuesday.

In the Xinjiang outbreak, 38 birds were discovered dead near Urumqi city on November 16 with the disease confirmed by a national laboratory, Xinhua said, citing a Ministry of Agriculture statement.

On November 17, 230 birds were found dead in Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, while another 2,500 poultry were discovered dead in Chuxiong city in Yunnan on the same day.

Ministry officials have ordered the culls of all poultry within a radius of three kilometers (1.9 miles) of each outbreak, with 8,388 fowls destroyed in Xinjiang, 99,400 in Yunnan and 66,800 in Ningxia.

The news came one day after China announced the bird flu crisis in the country was "severe" and set to worsen in the winter months.

Beijing also revealed there had been 21 outbreaks in the world's most populous country this year.

The outbreaks had occurred in nine provinces in mainland China, affecting 45 villages and causing the deaths of 144,624 birds, while a further 21.1 million have been culled, Vice Agriculture Minister Yin Chengjie said.

With the world's biggest poultry industry -- 14 billion fowls produced each year -- China faces a crisis that is far from over, Yin warned.

He made the grim assessment after China's cabinet, the State Council, adopted tough emergency laws requiring local governments and people to respond quickly to bird flu and other animal diseases.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003. China reported its first human fatality this month.

Hong Kong late Tuesday suspended poultry meat imports from Ningxia and Yunnan, said a Health, Welfare and Food Bureau spokesman. Imports from Xinjiang had been suspended since an outbreak in June.

"Of the three regions, there were only a small quantity of frozen poultry meats imported to Hong Kong from Ningxia," the spokesman said. "We will keep a close watch on the development in the three regions in the next few weeks."

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