Farmers in the Akmola Region are begging for help to save livestock dying on the steppe and urgently declare a state of emergency. Horses are dying in their dozens right on winter pastures - abnormal weather has prevented them from reaching the grass beneath the icy snow.
As KTK reports, people are sharing that the horses have been underfed since the summer. Back then, the grass on the pastures was scorched by the heat. The abnormal winter has worsened the problem of feed shortages.
The weakened animals cannot break the ice or clear the snow cover - their traditional food in winter conditions remains out of reach. As a result, horse carcasses are strewn all over the steppe. Primarily, the young are dying, but starvation spares no one. At the same time, herders are unable to bring the thinned-out herds back to the villages because the surrounding area is buried in snow.
According to veterinarians, the deaths of at least 200 horses are already known.
"The mortality is due to malnutrition. A band of rain passed through, and it (the steppe - editor's note) sort of turned icy. They couldn't reach the grass, and after that there were heavy snowfalls. So it's clear: we did perform autopsies on the dead animals and saw that, unfortunately, there was nothing in their stomachs", stated the head of the regional veterinary department, Talghat Zhunussov.
Earlier, a mass horse die-off was recorded in the village of Tortkol in the Bukhar-Zhyrau district of the Karaganda Region. Local residents believe the horses were struck by epizootic lymphangitis, or otherwise known as African glanders.
According to them, the animals die painfully from purulent sores that start on the legs and then spread throughout the body.