East China's Zhejiang province introduced subsidies on Tuesday for poultry breeders, to ease losses after the outbreak of H7N9 bird flu.

The provincial government will subsidize 15 yuan ($2.4) for every breeding bird, with a sliding scale for others.

Farms with more than 10,000 chickens and ducks ready for human consumption will receive a 1 yuan subsidy. Those who have more than 2,000 chickens and ducks laying eggs will be subsidized with 2 yuan for each bird. Each goose will entitle the breeder to a 2 yuan subsidy, with 1 yuan for an egg-laying pigeon and 0.2 yuan for each quail.

Poultry manufacturing companies will be subsidized to purchase fowl. Those who purchase and breed more than 50,000 birds from April 1 to May 30 will receive a subsidy of 2 yuan for each. The companies will be free from taxation.

China's poultry industry has been facing huge losses since the outbreak of bird flu in late March.

The poultry trade has been suspended in many cities and sales of eggs and poultry products dropped more than 70 percent. Farmers have been forced to kill the stock

Losses, according to the China Animal Agriculture Association, exceeded 16.7 billion yuan as of Monday.