ALMATY, April 22 (Reuters) – Uzbekistan on Wednesday listed measures amounting to the partial quarantine of cattle, linking them to foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in 48 countries in 2025-26.
The country’s agriculture ministry said in a statement that measures to be taken during the national “cattle hygiene” month would include disinfection facilities in farm areas, restricted access for outsiders, and elimination of infected animals.
The move comes after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the northwest of China and the mass culling of animals in Siberia due to what officials said were outbreaks of pasteurellosis and rabies.
The affected farmers, some veterinarians, and biologists called the Siberian culls excessive for dealing with pasteurellosis and rabies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, in a report, cited local sources and trading contacts who said the scale of the measures “may indicate an unconfirmed outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease”.
The Russian agriculture watchdog agency told Reuters that allegations in the USDA report “were not true”. It said on March 25 that there were no longer risks of the diseases spreading further.
Kazakhstan banned imports of animal feed wheat from Russia following the outbreaks.
The culling of thousands of animals in Siberia’s Novosibirsk region has sparked rare protests in Russia and prompted calls by farmers for the resignation of top government officials overseeing agriculture.
(Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva in Almaty; Writing by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
