“I was stressed, they simply twisted our hands. Now I realize that I can’t even buy a calf for those unfortunate 171 rubles per kilo. Forty thousand rubles (430 euros) – what can you buy for that today? A small calf costs more than a hundred thousand. They simply didn’t leave us anything. I’m sitting in an empty cowshed and crying,” said the farmer.
They have already killed more than 90,000 animals
The impacts on farms appear to be significant. The Russian media, citing the Analytika.Biznis.Právo center, which conducts sociological, economic and legal research, reports that more than 90,000 farm animals have been killed in at least nine Russian regions since February. Some data calculated the damage to farmers at one and a half billion rubles (more than 16 million euros).
Somewhere, according to the Russian media, the authorities did not bother to explain to breeders the exact reason why their cows, goats or pigs end up in slaughterhouses.
In the Novosibirsk region, where a state of emergency and strict quarantine was declared, according to the website, farmers were told that a “new” disease was spreading among animals, but officials kept its specific name to themselves.
The head of the region, Andrej Travnikov, claimed that they are fighting against pasteurellosis in the region. “Today, strict but absolutely necessary veterinary measures are being implemented in the Novosibirsk region to prevent the spread of the disease and significant damage in livestock production,” according to TASS at a session of the Legislative Assembly.
Official and unofficial versions
However, according to the Russian website, there are both official and unofficial versions. They officially claim that the animals could have been infected with the aforementioned pasteurellosis and rabies.
Where did these diseases come from? In the Novosibirsk region, according to the newspaper, they explained it as follows: on the one hand, the harsh winter and extremely low temperatures weakened domestic animals, and on the other, they caused wild animals, which can be carriers of the infection, to appear more often in villages.
According to the director of the regional veterinary support center Jurij Šmidt, one of the reasons why the cattle fell ill was carelessness on the farm, where they violated “thoughtful and unthinkable regulations”. According to other sources, irregular vaccination, which led to the mutation of pathogens on small Russian farms, is to blame for the epidemic.
However, these versions are accompanied by question marks. As the website writes, pasteurellosis does not necessarily mean that all animals must be sent to slaughter. A given bacterial infection is treated with antibiotics, quarantine and vaccination, and although veterinarians may decide to cull sick individuals, the diagnosis may not yet be automatically fatal for the entire herd.
The rabies version also has loopholes. Rabies is a fatal infection and once symptoms appear, there is no help for the animal. However, many farmers insisted that their animals appeared healthy and that no tests were carried out by the authorities before slaughter.
Rumors about foot-and-mouth disease
There have also been unofficial rumours, which speak of the suspicion that foot-and-mouth disease may be raging in Russia.
“If there is a quarantine due to FMD, all exports will stop. There is a chance that the disease will be localized and we will not have to resort to extreme measures,” the source indicated to the magazine.
Also according to the website, rumors about foot-and-mouth disease spread in the villages that were quarantined. As he goes on to write, this highly contagious disease requires the culling of all even-toed ungulates within a radius of five kilometers from the outbreak – and exactly such measures have been implemented in Russia, according to the newspaper.
The head of the veterinary center in the Novosibirsk region, however, denied that farm animals suffer from this particular disease.
“Circumstantial evidence is hard to ignore. Among the culled animals were camels, which are susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease,” Meduza wrote. For example, a photo of a baby camel from a farm in Novokličy, which had to be euthanized, circulated on Russian telegram channels. The authors added that the veterinarians entered the farm without permission.
Trying to protect meat exports?
Why would the Russian authorities hide the occurrence of foot-and-mouth disease? Some farmers believe they may be trying to protect Russian livestock exports. If Russia were to admit that it has a problem, other countries could decide to ban the import of meat and dairy products, the newspaper writes in this regard.
At the same time, Russia only last year obtained the status of a country without the occurrence of foot-and-mouth disease, and it seems that it does not want to lose it. He makes a lot of money from meat. Last year, Russians exported a record 820,000 tons of meat products abroad. Their main customers are Belarus, China, countries of the Middle East and Kazakhstan.
However, it was the last-mentioned country that started to act preventively. Kazakhstan banned the import of livestock, meat and milk from four Siberian regions, including Novosibirsk, in February, according to Meduza.
