In the village of Shakhovskoye in the North Kazakhstan region, more than 13,000 domestic birds died over several weeks. Villagers lost the money they had invested in their farms, while specialists have not yet established the exact cause of the mass die-off. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
For the residents of Shakhovskoye, this is a familiar picture. A year ago, domestic birds also died en masse in the village, but the conclusions of local specialists and an independent laboratory diverged.
Now geese and ducks are falling ill one after another. Dead birds are taken out of the village and disposed of at a livestock burial site. Along with their flocks, people are losing their earnings and winter supplies.
The family of Abdulsamat Dosanov lost almost 60 geese in a single night.
"We penned them normally in the evening, and in the morning 57 head are lying dead. Out of 250 live geese, 80 vaccinated ones remain. Some people lost 800, 1,000 in 3 days. Roughly speaking, at least 10,000, and that is 1 million 700," said village resident Abdulsamat Dosanov.
In other households, the losses were even greater. Nina Piskunova had 300 goslings, and after several weeks fewer than a hundred remained. The family bought the birds on credit, expecting to earn income.
"There is diarrhea. A salad-green kind, a very bright, bright color, and that is how it starts. They start to turn their heads, and they fall. We took them on credit. Now we have to pay the money back. We have probably already spent a million on them, one could say. There are medicines, and they are not cheap. — Did you vaccinate against bird flu? — We did, it does not help," said Nina Piskunova, a resident of Shakhovskoye.
Villagers turned to veterinarians for help, but no effective treatment has been offered to them so far. Residents want to understand whether it is safe to raise domestic birds in the future.
"We called in veterinary doctors, they said all of them will die, they are not subject to treatment. Up to 2 months, the immunity is weaker, so the die-off is huge. We want to know the truth, what is this disease? Is it worth taking birds or not?" said local resident Nikolai Fomin.
According to official data, more than 13,000 birds died in Shakhovskoye. Specialists have not yet confirmed bird flu. Earlier, more than 46,000 head were vaccinated against it in the village.
Samples taken from sick and dead birds were sent for examination to Astana. The results of the laboratory study are expected within a week.
Veterinarians name the import of birds without accompanying documents and their keeping in conditions of high crowding as one of the possible causes of the mass die-off.
"We consider one of the factors of the die-off to be that the birds were brought in from the Republic of Bashkortostan, and there are no accompanying documents for the flock. This leads to unsanitary conditions, where there is high crowding. A necropsy was performed. The upper respiratory tracts are clean, so it does not look like flu, but possibly pasteurellosis," said Zhanat Amerzhanov, head of the regional veterinary department.
A year ago, a mass die-off of birds was registered in Shakhovskoye and the neighboring village of Bugrovoye. At that time, local specialists diagnosed pasteurellosis.
Entrepreneurs who suffered million-dollar losses conducted an independent study in Almaty. The laboratory identified highly pathogenic bird flu, but local authorities did not agree with this conclusion.
Now the residents of Shakhovskoye are again waiting for the results of an examination that should establish the cause of the death of thousands of domestic birds.