What is the reason for the mass death of pigs in the Astrakhan region

The number of pigs in the Astrakhan region has sharply decreased in 2022. Such data are provided by Astrakhanstat in its report. If at the end of 2021 the number of these animals in the farms of the region was 1.6 thousand heads, then at the end of last year it was only 1 thousand heads.

What is the reason for such a rapid decline in the number of these animals? For an explanation, "Watermelon" turned to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Astrakhan region. The answer was, in general, expected: African plague killed the pigs. Not all personal subsidiary farms took preventive measures to protect farm animals from a dangerous disease - the result was sad.

It is believed that African swine fever is not dangerous to humans, butthe animal has no chance of escaping from it if it catches the virus . The disease is accompanied by fever and skin lesions. African swine fever was recorded in the Akhtuba region.

However, pig breeding is far from the most important area for Astrakhan livestock breeders. The number of pigs in comparison with other types of farm animals is scanty. For comparison, at the end of 2022, there were almost 300 thousand heads of cattle and about 1.3 million heads of sheep and goats in the region.