Russia's Rosselkhoznadzor claims to have established saiga mass die-off cause in Kazakhstan
ASTANA. June 8 (Interfax) - Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia's food safety watchdog, claims that pasteurellosis is the cause of the saiga antelope mass die-off in Kazakhstan.
A specialist lab on highly dangerous animal diseases of the animal health protection center - a subsidiary of Rosselkhoznadzor - carried out research on June 1-2 into saiga deaths in the Akmola, Aktobe and Kostanai regions.
As a result of the research, experts ruled out several highly dangerous diseases, including foot-and-mouth, sheep and goat plague, while all tests revealed Pasteurella multocida Type B, according to a statement. The experts from the center came to the conclusion that this bacterium caused the antelope mass die-off.
The saiga mass die-off was recorded in Akmola, Aktobe and Kostanai regions in May and around 130,000 antelopes perished - over a third of their population in Kazakhstan, according to the latest data. Last year there were over 300,000 such antelopes in the country.