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Is Pasture Structure and Plant-Composition the Key to Explaining the Mass Die-Off of the Saiga Antelope in the Borsy Region of Kazakhstan?
The die-offs were very location specific and individuals from the same sub-population who grazed elsewhere suffered no mortality event. Adult antelope died suddenly whilst grazing, and calves died subsequently, apparently as a result of starvation.Acute pulmonary oedema and emphysema (APE), or fog fever, results from sudden expose to lush vegetation and is proposed as the cause of this die- off due to the observed acute and pasture-related nature of the mortality events.
Assessment of the Short-Term Effects of Weather Conditions on Mass Mortality of the Saiga Antelope in Kazakhstan
One of the hypotheses is that an environmental factor triggered the precipitation of a polymicrobial disease, primarily haemorrhagic septicaemia caused by Pasteurella multocida serotype B. This study describes gross pathological findings obtained during field investigations and tests if weather conditions preceding the outbreaks acted as a common trigger. For this purpose, weather conditions at different known die-off sites were compared with those from unaffected sites, using meteorological data from regional, ground-based weather stations.