The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has expressed concern over the mass deaths of a rare Mongolian antelope.
Some 900 Saiga antelopes, almost 10 per cent of the sub-species’ population, have been found dead in Mongolia’s western Khovd province, according to a FAO report.
Samples taken from carcasses indicated the animals were positive for Peste des Petits Ruminants, a highly fatal viral disease with plague-like impact on domestic sheep and goat herds.
According to the UN food agency, the PPR viral disease had killed up to 90 per cent of infected animals.
“The FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health are leading a multinational effort to eradicate the disease by 2030.
“First identified in Côte d’Ivoire in the 1940s, the plague is now threatening over 75 countries,” FAO said.
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