What disease is forcing Russian officials to slaughter pigs in the Tyumen region? They won’t say, except to describe it as ‘very dangerous.’

In Russia’s Tyumen region, authorities in several villages of the Golyshmanovsky district have begun seizing pigs from farmers and killing the animals, citing an unidentified disease.

Village administrations and regional authorities have not identified the disease behind the seizures, according to the local news outlet 72.ru. Residents believe it may be African swine fever, though this has not been confirmed. Officials have described it only as a “very dangerous disease.”

Officials said the only way to stop the disease from spreading is through strict quarantine measures, including destroying entire herds at outbreak sites and conducting thorough disinfection. A disinfection checkpoint was set up August 7 at the entrance to the Golyshmanovsky district, local residents said, where vehicles are treated with a special solution to help contain the outbreak. Residents are barred from taking pig meat out of their villages for the duration of the quarantine.

Authorities have not disclosed how much compensation residents will receive for their seized livestock, local residents said. For many residents, livestock is a source of both food and income since — as they put it — “there isn’t much work in their area.”

“They took 22 head from me,” farmer Vladimir Buzin said. “They gave them shots, loaded them up, and took them away. I live off these pigs, and now they’ve taken them. The authorities don’t say exactly how much they’ll pay for them. Apparently, the compensation is supposed to be the market price for adult pigs, about 3,000 rubles per piglet. As for the market price — that’s completely unclear. If I get, say, 30,000 rubles, what good would that money do me? Right now I don’t even have money for hay for the cow or diesel fuel, can you imagine that?”

District officials held a meeting in Golyshmanovo, the district center, on August 10 to discuss the pig seizures. They said the measures were tied to a disease that is fatal to pigs but poses no threat to humans. District representatives did not specify a compensation amount, saying only that “the compensation is quite decent and provided for by law.”

Authorities in the Novosibirsk region said in February 2026 that they had detected several cases of pasteurellosis among cows in two districts. The region’s governor then issued a decree introducing quarantine measures in some communities, and authorities began forcibly confiscating livestock from residents. Farmers said authorities provided no documents when seizing the animals and could not clearly explain the reason for the seizures. Residents of several villages blocked roads and recorded an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.