FGBI "ARRIAH" has established the cause of a serious illness and death of an elk in the Saratov region

Specialists conducted a post-mortem examination and took samples of the biomaterial. it was established that the cause of the appearance of signs of damage to the NERVOUS SYSTEM and subsequent death was a generalized parasitic invasion. Thus, the larvae of the subcutaneous gadfly (hypodermatosis), accumulating in large numbers in the spinal canal, can lead to paralysis of the hind limbs and death.

When testing samples using molecular, serological and bacteriological methods at the FGBI "ARRIAH", especially dangerous infections were excluded - foot-and-mouth disease, contagious pleuropneumonia, distemper of small ruminants, chronic wasting disease (HIB), rabies, as well as a number of infections of economic importance: pasteurellosis, clostridium, hemophilia, infectious rhinotracheitis, viral diarrhea, bluetongue, Schmallenberg's disease, paratuberculosis, brucellosis, chlamydia, and others.

The Saratov region has a long common border with the Republic of Kazakhstan, where a number of outbreaks of infectious diseases have recently been noted, including foot-and-mouth disease, brucellosis, smallpox and others. Of particular concern is the possibility of introducing infectious diseases along with migrating wild animals. Thus, only the number of saiga populations in Kazakhstan, according to aerial survey data in the spring of 2022, was 1 million 318 thousand heads. Mass entry of the saiga into the Saratov region has been observed for the last two years. Under such conditions , ROSSELKHOZNADZOR pays special attention to cases of disease in wild animals, which is one of the conditions for implementing a program to maintain the epizootic well-being of the subject and the country as a whole.