BIOSECURITY ▶▶▶
Cows on pasture threatened in Russia
The dark path of global warming is a dangerous one with severe consequences, one being that in some pastures in parts of Russia there may be deadly viruses that have been buried for decades, if not centuries, under the permafrost; these viruses could be released as a result of global warming. This is of concern while the Russian government is rolling out plans to boost the domestic dairy herd and milk production.
BY VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV A
Permafrost is melting in the north of Russia and more land is expected to be freed from snow and ice in Rus- sian Siberia in the coming years.
few years ago, Russian farmers encountered a mysterious anthrax outbreak in the Yamal Peninsula – a sparsely populated region in the Arctic Circle. Dozens of people were hospitalised
and one child died. The government had to evacuate some families because one of Russia’s largest reindeer herds, of 2,000 animals, was infected. A follow-up investigation showed that the outbreak was caused by a reindeer carcass that had been infected with anthrax and buried in the permafrost somewhere in the mid- dle of last century. Global warming turned the frozen soil in Siberia into pastures and exposed the deadly burial site. There is no surprise that the anthrax spores stayed alive since the bacterium can survive in cold conditions for 2,500 years, the Russian Academy of Science estimated.
Anthrax is a common threat to the Russian milk industry. Out- breaks occur from time to time in different regions, prompt- ing local authorities to embark on mandatory vaccination campaigns of the milk cow population. The last episode was registered in October 2020 in the Republic of Dagestan when five people were infected after being in contact with sick cows. More land is expected to be set free from snow and ice in Russian Siberia in the coming years. A government report on environmental protection said temperatures in Russia had warmed by 0.42°C per decade since 1976, or 2.5 times quicker than the global warming trend of 0.17°C.
Milk industry set to grow By 2023, Russia is set to launch new milk farms with a total designed production performance of 1.2 million tonnes of milk per year. The industry is likely to add 5 million tonnes of milk production per year in the long run, the Russian bank Rosselkhozbank estimated. In 2020, the domestic dairy indus- try became the second most attractive for investments in the Russian livestock industry. Siberia is likely to account for a significant portion of the upcoming growth. By 2027, the industry is likely to double average productivity to 7 tonnes per cow compared to 3.55 tonnes in 2017 thanks to investments of Rub50 billion ($ 800 million) per year, the Russian union of dairy producers Soyuzmoloko forecast. The growth of milk production is expected to be around 2–3% per year. “Strategically, with its vast northern territories Russia could take advantage of global climate change,” comments Artem Belov, chairman of Soyuzmoloko, adding that this is unlikely to change the entire dairy industry’s landscape in the coming several years. Global warming offers some benefits to the Russian milk in- dustry. The rising temperatures could let animals feed on pas- tures in the southern regions year-round. In that case, in terms of productivity, Russian companies could catch up with the countries with better climate, like the US, Brazil, Argenti- na, Paraguay, India and others, says Andrey Dalnov, head of industry expertise department at Rosselkhozbank. “In the future – and here we are talking about several dec- ades – the location of livestock complexes may gradually shift to the north, not only due to warming but also because of a
28 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 8, No. 2, 2021
PHOTO: VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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