Bird flu has been identified on a poultry farm in Lunteren in Gelderland, in the heart of the Dutch egg industry, the agriculture ministry has confirmed.

All 5,000 laying hens on the farm have been killed, as have an unspecified number at seven other locations less than one kilometre away from the affected farm.

Some 235 other poultry farms are located within 10 kilometres from the Lunteren farm and all are now subject to additional restrictions.

Farm minister Hans Staghouwer described the current situation as ‘extremely worrying’, given the new outbreak’s location, and said it will have ‘enormous impact’ on a lot of people.

The Lunteren case is the first since August 2. So far over 3.5 million birds have been culled since the outbreak began last October and the disease has been identified on 53 farms.

The Netherlands has some 1,700 poultry farms, half of which produce eggs – totalling some 10 billion eggs a year.