Thousands of birds killed in Stavropol region due to bird flu

An outbreak of bird flu occurred in the Izobilnensky urban district of the Stavropol Territory. Sanitary posts have been set up on the roads, and thousands of bird carcasses are being burned in the fields.

On the morning of February 24, local residents observed clouds of smoke rising from the fields near Izobilny. it was not the first time that the big bonfire caught fire: on the ninth and tenth of February, thousands of turkey carcasses were set on fire. For the second time, 350 tons of finished products were destroyed. Only ashes and huge losses remained - such are the consequences of an outbreak of bird flu.

- Now the situation is stabilized. The livestock at infected poultry farms has been completely destroyed, burned, disinfection is underway at all sites in all buildings. By the end of the week we are going to complete it, and after that there will be a second disinfection. We will wait 21 days and do the third disinfection, after which we plan to lift the restrictions, - Denis Taranukha, the acting HEAD of the veterinary department of the Stavropol Territory, told the RG correspondent.

According to him, everything can take about a month. Until then, quarantine will continue to operate in several settlements, and sanitary control points will remain at the entrances.

It all started at the end of January: on the 30th it became known that at several sites of the Agro-Plus enterprise there had been a case of bird flu for several days. Already on February 1, quarantine was introduced in the city of Izobilny, on the farms of Shirobokov and Sporny, in the villages of Novotroitskaya and Kamenobrodka, as well as in the village of Peredovoy. The work of "Agro-Plus" was paralyzed. According to the regional authorities, almost four hundred workers went on forced leave without pay. Those birds that did not die from the disease were seized and destroyed: more than 12.5 thousand heads.

According to the rules, in the event of an outbreak of bird flu in the quarantine area, all birds are seized, including from private farms. The district administration organized door-to-door rounds to inform people and conduct a census of the number of birds. Public sector employees were also attracted to them.

Poultry owners' ignorance or overthinking tends to produce the same results year after year, even though it's not that hard to avoid disaster.
“We were given a sheet in which we had to enter the owner's name, address, number of chickens, geese, turkeys,” said one of the participants in the round, who asked not to be named. - Few people told us something. The roosters behind the fence are crowing, but people say they don't have a bird. Some just didn't come out. No one behaved aggressively with us, but other linemen said that they were chased away.

The administration of the Izobilnensky urban district, however, does not know about the cases of hiding the bird. According to local authorities, the seizure has been completed in full. Those who wanted could have time to get rid of live birds.

- As far as we know, as soon as door-to-door rounds began, people slaughtered poultry, processed MEAT. This is not prohibited, meat after heat treatment is safe. People acted as they saw fit, - says the deputy head of the administration of the district, Gennady Iov.

260 birds were taken from local residents, the regional veterinary department reports. The department assures that the owners of the alienated livestock will receive compensation, its amount is now determined in accordance with the market value. Despite this, local authorities say that the outbreak of bird flu is a serious blow to everyone.

- This is a painful situation. Enterprises of the "Agro-plus" level pay more than 96 million rubles in taxes per year. Only our budget receives about nine million rubles - personal income tax and property tax. Some of that money will fall out, says Job. - In addition, people are afraid that they will be left without work. The company employed 450 people, another 70 employees in a slaughterhouse with freezers. Almost everyone has families. It turns out that this situation directly affects at least one and a half thousand people.

Nevertheless, both municipal and regional authorities hope that the poultry producer will be able to get back on his feet and restore production. According to Gennady Iov, the management of Agro-Plus intends to work further.

- The enterprise, in order to keep the staff for the period of anti-epidemiological measures, pays the minimum wage. In any production, people are the most valuable thing, - the deputy head of administration notes.

The RG correspondent failed to contact representatives of Agro-Plus. It is worth noting that this is not the first outbreak of bird flu in the vicinity of Izobilny. In 2020, a similar story happened at the same enterprise, but the strain was different then. Vasily Nikolaenko, a professor at the Stavropol State Agrarian University, says the infection is highly contagious and spreads at lightning speed. It is enough for a person on the street to step on the droppings of an infected bird, and then go into a room where other birds are kept. Thus, a focus of infection may occur and the entire livestock may die. After that, there is nothing left but to apply drastic measures.

- You need to burn, burn and burn again, which Rospotrebnadzor makes you do. But we do not know how to carry out prevention and do not want to. To do this, it is necessary to organize sanitary and veterinary measures at poultry farms. First of all, carry out aerosol disinfection in empty rooms and in the presence of birds. Especially when there is a risk and there have already been outbreaks in the next 100 kilometers. At those enterprises where all this is done, bird flu does not come, - the scientist said.

Also, according to Nikolaenko, there is a vaccine against bird flu, but only parent flocks are vaccinated - those that lay eggs, from which broilers then hatch.

In his opinion, the ignorance of bird owners or excessive savings from year to year lead to the same consequences, despite the fact that avoiding a catastrophe is not so difficult.

Meanwhile,

First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Stavropol Territory Vladimir Sitnikov said that the outbreaks of various diseases of farm animals, which now and then happen in the Stavropol Territory, indicate systemic errors and insufficient control over the implementation of sanitary and veterinary rules at enterprises.

- Each case of an epizootic affects one of the most important drivers of the region's economic development - the EXPORT potential. Today, more than 50 percent of the poultry meat exported by the Russian Federation is produced in the Stavropol Territory. And these positions cannot be lost,” Sitnikov said. - In order to prevent cases of infection and ensure the stable operation of livestock enterprises, we intend to significantly strengthen veterinary control.

According to him, now pathological material from all poultry sites will be examined monthly. With the same frequency, experts will study the pathological materials of wild birds within a radius of five kilometers from the enterprises. The "shelf life" of laboratory tests required for accompanying documents for poultry will be reduced to ten days. All enterprises will be required to develop biosecurity programs.