Killing pit: cattle burial grounds threaten Russians

In Russia, it is planned to carry out work on the reclamation and elimination of mass graves of animals that pose a threat to human health. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rosselkhoznadzor propose to ban the creation of new cattle burial grounds. The State Duma will consider a draft law on the creation of a complete register of such objects and on their verification in autumn. The new law is expected to come into force in September next year. Details - in the material "Izvestia".

Health Threat

According to federal agencies, there are 14,000 potentially dangerous animal burial grounds in the country. 46% of them are operating, but ownerless and can potentially pose an environmental threat to settlements. Often such illegal "cemeteries" are created by unscrupulous farmers who do not want to pay for the transportation and disposal of animal remains.

The draft law provides for the introduction of a ban on the construction of new animal burial grounds in the Russian Federation. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture will develop veterinary rules for the operation and liquidation of existing cattle burial grounds, the Ministry of Agriculture told Izvestia.

A complete register of animal burial grounds will also be formed on the basis of the FSIS Cerberus, a component of the VetIS system. Information about all animal burials will be entered into it, which, according to the government's plans, should ensure the traceability of biological waste. The Ministry of Agriculture will also approve a list of biological waste obtained from the processing of food and non-food raw materials of animal origin.

As explained in the State Duma Committee on Agrarian Issues, the current legislation provides for the possibility of too broad interpretation of the concept of "biological waste". Participants in the circulation of biological waste often face difficulties due to the vagueness of the wording “biological waste”. The new law is designed to bring order to this issue.

“Given that waste disposal is the further use of waste for the production of goods, performance of work, provision of services, including the reuse of waste, including the reuse of waste for its intended purpose, and the destruction of waste is directly bringing waste into a state of impossibility for their further processing and use , the bill proposes to replace the existing concept of "recycling and disposal" with "utilization and destruction," the explanatory note says.

The National Veterinary Association (NVA) notes that cattle burial grounds today threaten settlements and the health of citizens, being a source of anthropozoonotic pathogens. The lack of veterinary specialists prevents proper control over the condition of the facilities, the NVA notes.

REFERENCE "Izvestia"

In Russia, the burial of animal corpses in the ground is prohibited. In many European countries, animal carcasses are disposed of in special facilities or factories. In the USSR, the organization of animal burial grounds was carried out on a large scale due to the cheapness of work on their arrangement and the availability of free space. According to sanitary requirements, the cattle burial ground should be located at a distance of at least 500 m from residential, livestock, including poultry, buildings, livestock tracts, carriageways, rivers, ponds and other bodies of water.

Close to houses and rivers

According to the chief researcher of the FSBI "UralNIIEkologiya", chairman of the NTS REO (Russian environmental operator) Alexander Solovyanov, the figure of 14 thousand is most likely underestimated. Illegal animal burial grounds arise due to oversight on the part of supervisory authorities, he believes. Indeed, without the knowledge of the authorities, it is impossible to use state land for any purpose, Solovyanov points out. In addition, the specialist notes, there should be control over the movement of animals, especially in large agro-industrial complexes.

- True, if the owner of one or two heads has a case due to an infectious disease, then, of course, it is difficult to trace what the owner did with the dead animal, - says the expert. - After all, they are not only buried, but also dumped into reservoirs. In general, it is necessary to solve the problem of detailed accounting.

In order to avoid contamination of groundwater, he explains, an insulating layer is needed under the animal burial ground. If this is not done, then it is extremely difficult to intercept dangerous pollution. You can, of course, drill wells along the perimeter, pump out contaminated water and then disinfect it. But this is a very expensive pleasure, especially if the pollution is of a long-term nature.

The specialist believes that special attention should be paid to the problem of decontaminating cattle burial grounds with a long existence. The biological material there has already been decomposed to varying degrees. It can be removed and burned only in case of its obvious danger (for example, when anthrax spores are found). In other cases, it is necessary to develop technologies for chemical and biological neutralization, he believes.

Marina Yakubenko, head of the Eco-Inspection of the People's Front in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, recalls that illegal cattle burial grounds can be located in the water protection zone of rivers, in forests, and even in close proximity to residential buildings.

“Recently, we have discovered eight such illegal cattle burial grounds near Krasnoyarsk alone,” says Yakubenko. - One of the latest cases - in the village of Lopatino. A few hundred meters from residential buildings, the remains of animals were scattered in a spontaneous dump among household garbage.

Today, the state has created a control system for farms "Mercury". According to representatives of the Rosselkhoznadzor, thanks to this system, you can track the entire cycle of production and sale of agricultural and livestock products. But, on the other hand, the experts of the "People's Front" are faced with the fact that even after finding the remains of cattle with a tag of a farmer-owner, it is almost impossible to prove that it was he who organized the spontaneous cattle burial ground. The "owner" of the discovered remains is accepted to claim that he sold the cows through the announcement site, and then another seller resold them, without entering the relevant data into the official database of Rosselkhoznadzor. It seems to be a human factor, but, according to Marina Yakubenko, it also needs to be controlled by departments.

“Today, farmers themselves admit that it is unprofitable for them to register in the official system, conclude contracts for waste disposal, and complain about the excessive regulation of their activities,” the specialist says. - According to them, the production is practically waste-free (processing into meat and bone meal, etc.). Their understandable desire to save money is obvious, but in fact the remains found anywhere have to be liquidated by the owner of the land - most often local administrations at the expense of the state treasury.

Infrastructure problems

DirectorFederal Research Center for Virology and Microbiology Denis Kolbasov believes that one of the reasons why animal owners do not dispose of the remains in accordance with applicable law is the lack of necessary infrastructure and the lack of a clear and transparent mechanism for determining the cost of these works. Often there is a problem of transport accessibility of disposal points, and the cost of transporting such waste lies with the owner of the animals.

- A possible solution to the problem is the introduction of insurance for this risk, when all the costs of disposal would be covered by insurance. But this requires a clear mechanism for calculating the costs of disposal in each specific region, says Denis Kolbasov. — To estimate the costs of carrying out the same vaccination, it is necessary to understand the requirements that will need to be met in order, based on the results of reclamation, to remove restrictions from the unfavorable territory, and also to determine the public authority responsible for making a decision to remove the restriction. Currently, these issues, alas, are not regulated by law.

One of the saddest examples is the deer death grounds in the Far North, which have been formed historically and there are no real mechanisms for their elimination, the expert notes. According to him, preventive vaccination is an effective means of reducing the risk of anthrax infection in animals.. According to the results of the investigation of the anthrax outbreak in Yamal in 2016, it was the refusal to routinely vaccinate deer that led to serious consequences.

— The severity of the problem with animal burial grounds in the North is now associated with climate change, — says Alexander Solovyanov. - There is a "thaw" of permafrost soils, and what was frozen comes out. The problem is also in the low population and in the large territory of the North, so it is difficult to organize effective control. However, one should try to organize remote monitoring, including using UAVs.

In any case, the experts conclude, the organization of effective monitoring is necessary, because there are types of pathogenic microorganisms that are dangerous not only for animals, but also for humans. In addition, their mutation is possible due to climate warming and the emergence of new strains due to migration from southern latitudes.