The Government of Kazakhstan has approved the long-awaited Comprehensive Plan for the Development of Veterinary Medicine for 2026–2030 - months after the situation in the industry spiralled into a public crisis. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov signed the relevant decree. A glossy document with ambitious goals, but how well does it reflect reality?
WHAT THE STATE PROMISED
According to the Comprehensive Plan, by 2030, salaries for employees of veterinary organisations under local executive bodies should increase by 1.5 to 2.5 times, and the material and technical equipment of veterinary facilities will be modernised by 80%.
Priorities include digitalisation, traceability of animals from birth to the counter, development of laboratory infrastructure, and combating particularly dangerous diseases. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Amangaliy Berdalin noted that Kazakhstan has already received international recognition for a number of diseases - foot-and-mouth disease, African horse sickness, and African swine fever.
However, at the very moment these words were spoken, the western regions of the country were being overwhelmed by an epizootic, the precise name of which has yet to be definitively established.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE STEPPE
While the plan was being approved, FB RK documented the situation on the ground: in West Kazakhstan (WKO), Aktobe and North Kazakhstan (NKO) regions, livestock breeders were independently choosing treatment regimens for their cattle - from messaging apps and the internet. Veterinarians were physically unable to reach all the sick animals in time.
The reason for the overburdening of veterinarians is known and measurable. One specialist serves nearly 2,000 head of livestock instead of the standard 750. And although the comprehensive plan promises to raise salaries by 2030, experts warn that by then inflation will eat away part of the increase, and the problem of staff shortages itself requires a systemic solution - not one-off bonuses.
STATISTICS UNDER A 'FOR OFFICIAL USE' MARKING
The issue of transparency in Kazakhstani veterinary medicine is also telling. At the start of the year, FB RK requested from the Committee for Veterinary Control and Supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) statistics on animal disease outbreaks over ten years. The committee refused, citing a 'For Official Use Only' classification. Meanwhile, Kazakhstani scientists freely publish similar data in international scientific journals.
The Comprehensive Plan promises 'strengthening laboratory control' and 'expanding the scope of accreditation'. But if the department is so diligent in concealing epizootic statistics behind a secrecy classification, exactly who will the upgraded laboratory be monitoring?
CORRUPTION AND 'GHOST' LIVESTOCK
The problem is not limited to personnel and diagnostics. In March, the prosecutor's office of the Turkestan region initiated a criminal case against the management of the State Public Enterprise 'Veterinary Service'. According to the investigation, the budget lost 928 million tenge - money was transferred for services that were not actually provided.
To this should be added a recent example from the Kostanay region, where the prosecutor's office uncovered the fictitious vaccination of 1,910 head of livestock and the inflating of livestock headcount reports by 537 head. Following the inspection, 20 officials were held accountable, and 744,300 tenge was reimbursed to the budget.
In parallel, FB RK discovered that thousands of head of livestock cross the Kazakhstani border without leaving a trace in accounting systems. Out of 299 transport consignments examined by our editorial team, 293 (98%) had no data on the date of entry into Kazakhstan nor any veterinary control records. The Comprehensive Plan promises 'traceability from farm to fork', but as long as livestock 'disappears' even at the border, any digitalisation remains merely a declaration.
WHAT THIS MEANS
The government has outlined the right objectives: personnel, laboratories, salaries, digitalisation, exports. All of this is indeed necessary. The question is whether the plan will be implemented or whether it will remain yet another 'triumphant report'. As long as an unexplained disease outbreak continues in the western regions, veterinarians work for three people, and statistics are hidden behind classification markings, any rosy figures for 2030 will be measured not by the lines of a decree, but by whether the farms that are still operating today survive.