Russia has seen another mass livestock cull over a disputed diagnosis. An earlier outbreak turned out to be foot-and-mouth disease.
- Authorities have begun seizing livestock from residents of Butyrki and Koty, two villages in Russia’s Irkutsk region. It was also reported that animals are being seized from residents of Oyok. According to People of Baikal, authorities have seized and killed 19 animals — 14 cows and five pigs — belonging to farmers.
- Officials said the animals were seized because of lumpy skin disease. They suspect the infection spread through the illegal import of sheep and goats. However, cattle in particular are considered susceptible to the disease. Eight outbreak sites and at least 96 sick cows have been identified in Butyrki and Koty, though other reports say the district already has more than 20 outbreak sites.
- The Oyok municipality has been under a state of emergency since September 4, and Butyrki and Koty have been placed under quarantine. Officials in the Irkutsk municipal district say they plan to begin vaccinating “susceptible” animals on September 9. Officials have said farmers will receive compensation for the animals killed. According to the local Telegram channel BG Irkutsk, only some farmers have agreed to accept compensation; others say their animals are not infected.
- Farmers complained that authorities plan to kill animals even without confirmed diagnoses. They also accused veterinarians of spreading the disease themselves by failing to follow safety precautions, including failing to change their uniforms after examining sick animals. When residents of Butyrki gathered to discuss the situation, three traffic police units were called to the scene. A woman in one of the quarantined villages attempted suicide in protest and was taken to the hospital, People of Baikal said.
- Residents are also unhappy with the location of the livestock burial site. At a meeting with the governor, they demanded that it be moved farther from the villages. A new burial pit was dug 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) from Butyrki, in the bed of the Sarafanka River. BG Irkutsk said that local residents criticized this decision as well. The newspaper Baikalskaya Sibir asked the environmental prosecutor’s office to assess whether placing the burial site in the riverbed is legal.
- Svetlana Shchepyotkina, a veterinary epidemiologist in St. Petersburg, said the symptoms seen in animals in the Irkutsk region may indicate foot-and-mouth disease rather than lumpy skin disease. According to Shchepyotkina, sick animals are killed with a drug called Adilin-Super, a curare-like poison that causes an agonizing death by suffocation. She said cows and pigs are often still alive when they are burned.
- Amid the outbreak in the Irkutsk region, neighboring Buryatia has gone on heightened alert. Round-the-clock veterinary checkpoints will be set up along the border between Buryatia and the Irkutsk region. The state veterinary service in the Zabaykalsky region published a guide in August on what to do during a lumpy skin disease outbreak.
- This is not the first mass slaughter of livestock in Russia over the past year. The most high-profile case occurred in the Novosibirsk region, where authorities seized livestock from farmers under the pretext of a pasteurellosis outbreak. It later emerged that foot-and-mouth disease was the reason for the seizures.
- Under Russian Agriculture Ministry rules, neither pasteurellosis nor lumpy skin disease requires infected animals to be killed. The two outbreaks are already being compared because of their many similarities.
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What are these settlements?
These villages are part of the Oyok municipal district, roughly 30–40 kilometers (19–25 miles) from Irkutsk.
Svetlana Shchepyotkina
Shchepyotkina is a veterinary epidemiologist, forensic expert, and candidate of veterinary sciences. She runs the Telegram channel “Vetprosvet” (“Veterinary Enlightenment”) and has frequently commented in the media (1, 2) on cases of mass livestock slaughter over the past year.
Lumpy skin disease
Lumpy skin disease is a viral infection that causes painful lumps and sores on the skin and mucous membranes of cows. Infected animals develop swollen lymph nodes and legs, runny noses, excess saliva, and conjunctivitis, along with fevers, reduced appetite, and lower milk production. The disease cannot spread from cows to humans or other farm animals. It is believed to spread between cows mainly through mosquitoes, flies, and ticks. Typically only 10–20% of a herd falls ill, and 1–5% of those infected die. For years, lumpy skin disease was found only in Africa. It reached Russia in 2015.
How much was promised?
Farmers were promised 304 rubles per kilogram for cows, 308 rubles for small ruminants, and 190 rubles for pigs. The Irkutsk municipal district will add compensation equal to about 30% of these sums, and residents were also promised 15,000 rubles apiece because of the ongoing state of emergency.