Chinese authorities will standardize the breeding and raising of poultry and livestock because husbandry-generated pollution has become a major problem in the countryside, according to a regulation signed by Premier Li Keqiang.

The regulation on preventing husbandry-generated pollution, which was publicized on Tuesday, will take effect on Jan. 1. It is expected to help reshape the industry and prevent avian influenza.

Poultry and livestock production has been inconsistent with environmental protection in the country's rural areas, according to a statement jointly released on Tuesday by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture.

The worsening rural environment can be largely blamed on the expansion of poultry husbandry factories, said the statement.

The level of decontamination of husbandry waste remains low and this has led to wasted resources and environmental pollution, it said, adding that the industry has become the nation's major source of agricultural pollution.

The regulation orders municipal and county governments to make plans to build facilities to comprehensively utilize the wastes and safely dispose of them. In heavily polluted regions, some poultry farms may be relocated or shut down.

The regulation requires local authorities to provide incentives to centralize and standardize development of husbandry, and vowed to support recycling and decontamination of waste.

It also orders that untreated waste should not be released directly into the environment.

Meanwhile, poultry and livestock farms must build facilities to store waste, treat sewage, and to process manure and the methane produced from waste resources, under the regulation.