The bird flu epidemic in the Netherlands continues unabated and at least 600,000 ducks and hens have been killed this month alone, according to government figures.

The latest case is in Lunteren, where bird flu has been found on a poultry farm with 50,000 birds. It is the fifth case of bird flu in the Gelderland town this month and 37 other farms within three kilometres of the affected location are now being checked for the disease.

The Dutch poultry industry is concentrated around Lunteren and Barneveld in Gelderland, where some 230 farms are located within a 10 kilometre radius, local paper the Gelderlander reported.

Some three million birds have been killed because of bird flu in the six months since the disease was first identified in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands has some 1,700 poultry farms, half of which produce eggs – totalling some 10 billion eggs a year. Bird flu infections have so far been found on 30 farms, most of which were producing eggs.