Mass cattle cull in Russia feared to be from bioweapons research plant ‘leak’

Tens of thousands of cattle have been culled in Russia, with fears that the animals were infected by a leak from a bioweapons research plant.

Thousands of animals have been killed amid furious protests from farmers in Siberia, with authorities giving differing accounts as to the reason why.

Some have cited an outbreak of ‘pasteurellosis’, which can normally be treated with antibiotics.

Disease control specialists have told farmers there was also an outbreak of ‘incurable rabies’, without citing evidence.

Farmers haven’t been shown the order from the Kremlin’s agriculture ministry, and are now claiming the organisation is trying to conceal the true cause.

There have been no outward signs of illness, and farmers insist their animals are healthy.

Despite this, the cattle have been burned in pyres, with some claims that the Putin regime is seeking to hide an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

One woman fainted and fell on the snow when she was told her livestock were being killed.

Others have been detained for demanding an explanation for the enforced cull.

Veteran political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin warned there may be a sinister explanation, pointing to Vector State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology, at Koltsovo, in the Novosibirsk region,  one of only two places in the world legally holding stocks of deadly smallpox.

Its vaults include Ebola, Marburg, and other lethal viruses. In the Cold War, Vector produced smallpox on an industrial scale, while also weaponising Marburg.

Oreshkin claimed that under Putin’s rule, ‘biotoxins or similar biologically aggressive compounds are being produced at the centre’.

He added: ‘We can’t say with complete certainty that some virus has leaked from this laboratory. But indirect evidence allows us to seriously consider this matter.

‘If this is the case, then the authorities’ hysterical reaction is completely understandable. We’re being told about a terrible disease called ‘pasteurellosis’. Sorry, but it’s a bacteria that’s treated with antibiotics.”

Oreshkin also said if the claim of the infection was true, there wouldn’t be a reason for mass hysteria and slaughter of livestock.

‘There’s something unhealthy about this story, and the fact that no one is going to explain anything to the public,’ he added.

And the cull or emergency measures are widening to other regions –  now covering at least four time zones in Russia, with neighbouring Kazakhstan taking emergency measures to prevent a spread.

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