Unknown disease strikes domestic animals in northern Kazakhstan

Tengrinews.kz – Residents of the village of Ilyinka in the Esil district of North Kazakhstan region are forced to keep their livestock in pens at the height of summer. The reason is that animals have begun falling ill with an unknown disease, citing Seventh Channel.

According to one local livestock farmer, he now has to keep seven head of cattle locked up. Veterinarians have temporarily banned villagers from letting their animals out to graze.

“The cows are already used to being almost entirely on green grass. Now they are standing at home, mooing and not eating anything. Especially when this epidemic started, they did not eat at all for two or three days. And we had to pour out the milk — what else could we do with it? If you give it to a calf, the calf will get sick. An infection is an infection,” the man said.

According to the TV channel, local residents are alarmed by what is happening and are being forced to buy dairy products in stores.

“If you don’t milk a cow, where will butter and sour cream come from? We bought milk at the store at least for tea. The animals have foam at the mouth, saliva flowing, some cannot even stand on their legs. They lie down, cannot eat, there is inflammation in the mouth and foam. Our livestock has not fallen ill, but I still carried out preventive treatment. They say it already happened in Nikolayevka, and now it has started in Ornek as well. This is mainly happening across North Kazakhstan region,” another villager explained.

According to specialists, the disease has been detected in almost 60 head of cattle in the settlement. At the same time, no livestock deaths have been recorded.

“We are ruling out foot-and-mouth disease because, first of all, there is no fever, which is a factor in foot-and-mouth disease. We took blood samples a week ago, and the laboratory result came back negative, confirming that this is not foot-and-mouth disease. The preliminary diagnosis is stomatitis. It can be transmitted between animals. It is not dangerous to humans. The epidemiological situation in the district is under the control of the veterinary service,” said Amanbolat Zhetekenov, acting head of the veterinary station of the Esil district.

Although specialists do not see a serious threat, people for whom livestock is the main source of income remain concerned. Moreover, similar symptoms are now being detected in animals in the neighboring village of Aleksandrovka, the report noted.