GOB - "AVIAN INFLUENZA NOT BEHIND 100,000 POULTRY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 000893

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/17/2016
TAGS: TBIO KSTH ECON PREL SOCI WHO PGOV PHUM BO
SUBJECT: GOB - "AVIAN INFLUENZA NOT BEHIND 100,000 POULTRY
DEATHS"

Classified By: By Charge Jonathan Moore for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (U) Summary: Approximately 100,000 chickens have died in
two separate accidents at Belarusian poultry farms since July

14. The GOB stressed that human error was at fault and
maintained that AI was not detected. Health officials
reiterated that the deaths were unfortunate accidents, but
assured Poloff that GOB's response to the possible AI threat
was swift. An independent news report, however, suggests the
two accidents were not a coincidence, but an orchestrated GOB
effort to cover up a possible AI outbreak. End Summary.


2. (U) On August 6, Belarus' state controlled national TV
channel BT reported that human error, not AI, was to blame
for the recent chicken deaths at two Belarusian poultry
farms. Until announced on TV, few knew that Belarus had lost
20,000 chickens in the Vitebsk Oblast on July 14 and 75,000
in the Gomel Oblast on August 6. On August 8, independent
online news source Belorusskiy Partizan (BP) doubted the
coincidence of the two tragedies, speculating that the mass
deaths and official explanations were created to cover up an
AI outbreak. However, BP offered little proof to
substantiate this claim.

20,000 Dead In Vitebsk
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3. (SBU) On July 14, 20,000 chickens died at the poultry farm
Vitsebskahrapradukt (Drazhna, Vitebsk region). Authorities
blamed the death on suffocation after a temporary electrical
outrage shut down the ventilation system. When Poloff
contacted the administration of a nearby pig farm, the
secretary confirmed that the large-scale deaths were due to

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electrical failure. However, the ventilation system has
since been repaired and no more deaths reported. No health
or security officials were deployed to the farm and no AI
tests were conducted. (Note: BP noted that authorities used
the same "electrical failure" reason to explain another mass
poultry death in the Grodno region earlier this year. We
have not found any information regarding poultry deaths in
Grodno. End Note.)

75,000 Dead in Gomel
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4. (SBU) On August 6, 75,330 chickens died at Gomel's largest
poultry farm Asobina in the Buda-Koshelevski region.
Authorities blamed the deaths on food poisoning. Aleksandr
Konon, deputy head of the anti-epizootic and
disease-prevention department with the Chief Veterinary
Service of the Agriculture Ministry told Poloff on August 9
that experts from various Belarusian agencies and ministries
quickly responded, but found no traces of AI on the farm
grounds after conducting three "complicated" toxicology
tests. Some carcasses and samples of bird food were sent to
Minsk for further testing.

Food Poisoning the Final Verdict
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5. (C) Poloff on August 11 contacted professor of
agricultural sciences at the National Academy of Sciences
Ivan Nikitchenko, an independent and anti-Lukashenko member
of the intelligentsia, who did not doubt the Gomel chicken
deaths were a result of poisoning. Nikitchenko explained
that it was not a rare occurrence, noting that he had
witnessed similar livestock poisonings when he served as head
of a regional agricultural executive committee in the Mogilev
oblast.


6. (C) Director of Veterinary Science of the Vyshelessky
Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine Boris Birman on
August 11 also blamed the deaths on food poisoning. Birman,
chief of Belarus' laboratory responsible for avian research
and disease analysis, claimed a farm employee confused feed
recipes and added too much of one ingredient (the name of
which he did not mention) that, in large doses, is toxic to
poultry. (Note: On August 15 the GOB announced that the
chicken feed contained too much calcium, which in large
quantities reportedly causes heart failure among birds. End
note.) As for GOB response time, Birman assured Poloff that
once news of a mass poultry death surfaced, Gomel regional
health and security officials quickly mobilized and
Minsk-based officials were on their way to Gomel within the
hour. The region's population was notified and the farm

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quarantined until tests proved negative for AI.

GOB Health Official: "AI A Farce!"
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7. (C) On a side note, Birman castigated the global AI
"scare," claiming that in his 30 years of research, bird flu
had not once put humans in danger. According to Birman,
those who have allegedly died from bird flu more than likely
died from another disease, but world governments and their
respective pharmaceutical companies saw the economic and
political profitability of associating bird flu, an easily
identifiable disease, with a "deadly pandemic." Birman
stressed more serious and lethal avian diseases existed, such
as Newcastle disease, which posed a greater risk to humans.

Comment
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8. (C) Although GOB officials claim Belarus is AI free, it is
unlikely that AI-infected birds are observing Belarus'
"no-fly" zone, especially during migration season. Given the
large GOB interest and investment in the poultry industry
(USD 560 million to increase poultry meat production by 70%)
and the regime's propensity for secrecy, it is doubtful the
GOB would admit an AI outbreak, let alone initiate a mass
culling campaign under such pretexts. However, we have not
seen any reliable evidence to counter the claims that the
tragedies were a result of human error.
Moore