Mysterious Cattle Deaths Continue in Spasskiy District, Russia

The environmental protection activists in the Republic of Tatarstan have reported mysterious cattle death cases in Spasskiy district since last summer [2010].

The cause of these deaths remains unknown; however, the activists connect it with a recent gamma irradiation experiment of the seeds in the region. The affected animals develop muscle weakness, start limping, and at the end die.

A representative of the environmental protection activists has visited one of the affected villages and asked the villagers about these cases. All 3 respondents have had a dead cow in their farm. They have said that the same situation exists in their neighbor's yards. There are no official statistics available for these fatal cattle cases.

A local veterinarian considers that the disease could be osteodystrophy due to affected metabolism in these animals. He also thinks that the quality of the local forage could be low because of the very hot summer last year [2010], which led to decreased nutritional value and less vitamins in all vegetation. Such problems with feed sometimes can cause similar health problems in cattle in early spring, he says. The environmental activists consider that seed irradiation also can lead to a low content of vitamins in forage plants.

To prove their claims they point out clustering of cattle deaths only in Spasskiy district, where the irradiation experiment took place. The neighboring districts, which had similarly hot summers last year, did not report cattle health problems at all. The environmentalists also cite scientific articles from the 1950s, which document loss of vitamins in irradiated seeds.

Additionally, they say, there is evidence about development of radiation sickness in animals if they are fed irradiated forage. There is an ongoing project in Russia to establish a centralized radiation facility for cattle forage and maybe chicken feeds as well. The local environmentalists consider this a dangerous development and are lobbying for local legislative measures against such radiation projects. Source