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Birds from a goose and duck farm in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, await their fate.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Global moves to combat the threat of avian flu are being stepped up, with China, the United States, Canada, Japan and North Korea all taking action to help stop the disease spreading.

The United States has banned poultry from mainland British Columbia, Canada after a duck there tested positive for a strain of avian flu over the weekend, a U.S. Agriculture Department official said Monday.

Jim Rodgers, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department's Animal-Plant Health Inspection Service, said federal officials took the step as a precaution until Canadian authorities provided more information about the tests they conducted on the animal.

Dr. Brian Evans, Canada's chief veterinary officer, said he received a letter from American officials saying they were restricting imports of poultry products from the British Columbia mainland until they received a full assessment of the situation in the five-kilometer (three-mile) area around the farm affected by the virus, The Associated Press reports.

Canadian authorities said Saturday that the bird tested positive for H5 strains of bird flu, but it was not clear whether it had the virulent H5N1 strain researchers fear could cause a human pandemic.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had started killing about 56,000 birds on the farm with carbon dioxide gas as a precaution, AP reports.

Elsewhere, China has ordered already strict anti-bird flu measures to be tightened following two new outbreaks in poultry in that country.

China's Vice-Minister of Agriculture Yin Chengjie told a news conference Monday the bird flu epidemic posed a growing threat to human beings, the official Xinhua news agency reports.

Yin and other officials announced new rules requiring local Chinese officials to set up disease-warning networks and to stockpile disinfectant and other emergency supplies.

Officials who failed to pinpoint and report outbreaks quickly face firing or jail.

China has confirmed 21 bird flu outbreaks in nine provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, Yin told media.

The bird flu outbreaks had killed 144,624 poultry while more than 21 million more birds had been culled, he said.

One human fatality in China from the disease has also been reported, along with another suspected death.

In Japan, authorities will on Tuesday start asking travelers from bird-flu affected areas to have their shoes disinfected upon arrival at the country's four major airports, including Tokyo's international gateway at Narita, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry spokesman Masanori Hayashi said, according to The Associated Press.

The voluntary measure is aimed at preventing poultry manure -- deemed a source of the spread of the bird flu among birds -- from being brought to Japan.

Japan confirmed a single human case of bird flu last December, but the patient recovered.

And in North Korea, a customs official said the isolated country has banned poultry imports from countries with bird flu and is scrutinizing arriving travelers and goods.

"We're quarantining people who are suspected of even a small thing," said the official, Kim Hyong Chol, quoted by the official Korean Central News agency.

North Korea suffered a bird flu outbreak in February that prompted it to destroy 210,000 chickens and other poultry.

Advance in drug production

In other developments, a Taiwanese research firm said it succeeded in making a key ingredient for the scarce antiviral drug Tamiflu -- a possible step towards mass-producing a generic version, AP reports.

The WHO has recommended that governments stockpile Tamiflu, one of the only drugs believed to be effective against bird flu. But its Swiss maker, Roche Holding AG, says high demand and the lengthy period needed for production have led to shortages.

On Monday, Taiwan's government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute said it has produced shikimic acid, a key Tamiflu ingredient, from three unidentified plants, AP reports.

Taiwan has been negotiating with Roche for a possible license to make generic Tamiflu for a possible bird flu outbreak. Roche's supplies of shikimic acid come from China.

Throughout Asia the H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 67 people since 2003. Almost all of them came into close contact with infected birds.

Experts fear that the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that can easily be passed from human to human, sparking a pandemic. (Past offers few clues)

CNN's Saundra Young contributed to this report

Global moves to combat flu threat

U.S. ban British Columbia poultry; China tightens measures

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