21 May 2015: The Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) sent an expert mission to Kazakhstan, as per the country’s request, to strengthen work to identify the cause of the current saiga die-off. Latest official reports confirm that 85,000 saiga antelopes have died in the Betpak-dala population, as well as another part of the Betpak-dala population towards the west in Aktobe oblast in Kazakhstan.

Professor Richard Kock of the Royal Veterinary College in the UK is working with the government on identifying the disease behind the current die-off. The Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK), one of the key partners providing technical coordination for the CMS Saiga Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), has been at the site from the onset of the mass mortality event and is providing technical assistance to the expert mission.

Samples from the affected saiga as well as the vegetation and soil of the area have been collected and are currently being analyzed. Aline Kühl-Stenzel, CMS Secretariat, said that primarily adult females and newborn calves have been affected, since mid-May is the period when females aggregate in vast herds to all give birth within a peak period of only one week. She noted that one or several large birth aggregations might have been eradicated.

For 2014, the population was estimated at approximately 200,000 animals, with a total of 257,000 saiga in the whole of Kazakhstan. According to saiga experts, although the recent die-off is extremely serious, it does not mean that the saiga is on the brink of extinction. A mass-mortality of saiga also occurred in 2011-2012.

The CMS Secretariat in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is currently preparing a meeting of all five Signatories of the Saiga MOU (Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), as well as consumer countries of saiga products, to review progress and to agree to urgently needed measures. [CMS News] [IISD RS Sources]