An outbreak of an unknown infection has caused mass deaths of poultry in the village of Shakhovskoye in the North Kazakhstan Region, with more than 13,000 birds killed, according to infohub.kz.
According to the Astana TV channel, 13,500 geese have already died in Shakhovskoye in northern Kazakhstan. Villagers say the unknown infection has been killing the birds for more than a week, and the cause of the disease remains unclear.
Villager Nina Piskunova said she has had to collect dead goose carcasses every day for the past week. Of her 300 birds, only a little over 80 remain.
"They start shaking. Then they begin twisting their necks. At first we didn't notice they had diarrhea. One just died and that was it. Then it started that they had a light green color. A very, very bright color. And then it begins. Then when you look, they start pecking at each other. There's still blood there," the woman told the TV channel.
According to villagers, the symptoms this year are similar to last year's. The report notes that in the fall of 2025, in the Kyzylzhar district, in the villages of Bugrovoye and Shakhovskoye, more than seven thousand poultry died. At that time, the cause was pasteurellosis.
"We called veterinarians, they said: they will all die, they are not treatable. So, morning and evening we take them to the animal burial site. Every day we haul them away, we've lost count. They said not to look at the sick ones, just twist their heads off and take them away, because they won't survive. They are spreaders of infection. What kind of infection, they say: we don't know. We want to know the truth. What is this disease?" said villager Nikolai Fomin.
People are confused and don't know what to do next: every day they count new losses.
According to the region's chief veterinarian, the number of dead birds in Shakhovskoye currently stands at around 13,500. One possible cause of the mass deaths, the official says, is the uncontrolled purchase and import of birds from Bashkortostan without any veterinary accompanying documents.
"Owners are using antibiotics uncontrollably. Immunity weakens in the body, and accordingly susceptibility to disease is minimized. And, of course, another factor is the very large flock. At the time of vaccination — that's May, April, so June, July — the entire poultry flock was vaccinated, and then 46,057 birds were vaccinated. Such a large crowding again leads to unsanitary conditions," said Zhanat Amerzhanov, head of the veterinary department of the North Kazakhstan Region.
It is noted that in addition to geese, the dead birds include chickens, ducks and turkeys, but their deaths are recorded less frequently.
Meanwhile, veterinarians continue to collect samples, with results expected from specialists at the National Reference Center next week. In addition, necessary tests were conducted by representatives of the capital's committee for veterinary control and supervision. Local veterinarians do not rule out that the cause of the mass bird deaths, as last year, could again be pasteurellosis.