In the village of Shakhovskoye in the Kyzylzhar district of the North Kazakhstan Region (NKR) a mass die-off of domestic geese has begun again. According to villagers, roughly a third of the flock has already died.
WHAT IS KNOWN
Residents of Shakhovskoye say that the birds stopped eating normally, stand with ruffled feathers, and are experiencing digestive upset with greenish discharge and trembling. According to one owner, the medicines they bought did not help: the geese continue to weaken and die, reports the Telegram channel “HALYQSTAN”.
Some villagers keep up to several thousand geese in their yards. They are unable to separate the sick birds from the healthy ones. According to residents, the disease develops so quickly that a bird dies in roughly a day.
WHEN A SIMILAR DIE-OFF ALREADY OCCURRED
For the residents of Shakhovskoye, this is not the first case of mass bird death. In November 2025, about 7,000 geese died in the village. At that time, the villagers' losses exceeded 10 million tenge, and specialists took several weeks to establish the cause of the birds' death.
Moreover, the promised compensation did not receive a clear payment mechanism.
WHAT THE FIRST TESTS SHOWED
Veterinary specialists collected pathological and biological material. Samples for avian influenza, Newcastle disease, salmonellosis and pasteurellosis returned negative results.
The official cause of the birds' death has not yet been established. The materials were sent to the National Reference Centre for Veterinary Medicine in Astana for further research.
WHAT MEASURES VETERINARIANS TOOK
This year, routine vaccination of domestic poultry against avian influenza was carried out in Shakhovskoye. On farms where a large number of geese are kept in a small area, veterinarians carried out repeat vaccination.
17,000 head of poultry received revaccination. Specialists also treated 20 yards; the total disinfection area amounted to 36,700 sq. m. Dead birds are being transported to a livestock burial site in compliance with sanitary standards.
WHAT THE VETERINARY DEPARTMENT SAYS
The NKR veterinary department reported that the studies carried out did not reveal the infections the birds were tested for. Specialists also checked the feed and water — no dangerous concentrations of harmful substances were found.
Owners are advised to keep birds only within their yard, isolate sick individuals and not transport sick or dead birds outside the settlement. The veterinary service, together with the akimat of the rural district, continues to monitor the situation.
CONTEXT
Mass bird deaths in the NKR have been recorded before. In June 2026, residents of the village of Saumalkol in the Aiyrtau district reported the death of waterfowl in the area of the lake of the same name. Villagers linked this to pollution of the reservoir, but the official cause of death had not been established at the time of publication.
Another episode occurred in September 2025 in the village of Bugrovoye. There, domestic poultry, mainly geese, died en masse. Later, laboratory tests established pasteurellosis as the cause of the die-off.
