Bird flu has now been identified at an egg farm in Friesland, taking the total number of companies affected to six, the economic affairs ministry confirmed on Sunday.

The 28,500 laying hens on the farm in the village of Hiaure, in the north of the province, will be killed in an effort to prevent the further spread of the disease.

Samples have been taken at another poultry farm within three kilometres of the affected farm to check for contamination.

Junior farm minister Martin van Dam has imposed a 10 kilometre ban on the movement of poultry, eggs and manure around the affected farm, in line with official regulations to combat the spread of the disease.

Ducks

On Sunday bird flu was identified at a duck farm in Kamperveen. All 14,000 ducks on the farm are being destroyed. Earlier, officials identified the virus in several wild ducks near Kamperveen, which is in Overijssel province.

The H5 virus was first identified in a number of dead wild ducks in November and was then confirmed at several duck farms in Biddinghuizen, in the heart of Flevoland.

Over 200,000 ducks and nearly 100,000 hens have so far been killed in an effort to stem the spread of the disease.

Restrictions

All poultry farmers, zoos and private owners have been ordered to keep their birds indoors because of the risk of spreading the disease. Officials have also introduced a ban on bird shows and on hunting ducks and geese.

The H5N8 variant of bird flu can be transmitted to people in rare cases. They will experience light flu-like symptoms, the public health institute RIVM said.

The last outbreak of bird flu in the Netherlands was in 2014 but that was restricted to a handful of farms. The 2003 avian flu outbreak cost the Dutch poultry and egg industry at least €300m in direct costs at that time