Nearly two thousand head of cattle have been buried in the last week due to the mass death of cattle reported in the municipality of Huimanguillo, Tabasco, due to the consumption of contaminated chicken manure, according to ranchers in the state.
Felipe Valencia Carranza, a rancher from Huimanguillo, expressed that his family is devastated, having lost all their assets in recent days due to this unexpected poisoning.
He said that due to the large number of dead animals, they have needed the use of four backhoes provided by the Huimanguillo municipality to dig holes on their ranch, located in the Manuel Sánchez Mármol Agricultural Colony, and bury the cattle.
“We’re witnessing a disaster I never would have imagined in my life. Starting Friday of last week, my ordeal began. Some are still dying, but it’s all gone. Of the 600 animals, at most, 25-30 remain. Right now, we’re burying a batch of Nelore, Red Brahman, and Gyr heifers,” he explained.
He added: “We’re burying them to avoid further contamination, whether it’s for the environment or some other bacteria that won’t affect us. We’re going to lime them and bury them. It’s all my and my family’s assets that have been reduced to nothing,” the rancher commented.
He also recalled that until last week, his ranch distributed 1,000 liters of milk daily; however, now they have nothing left to sell.
Felipe pointed out that this situation also affected his brother Gildardo Valencia Carranza’s cattle ranch, which saw at least 500 cattle die in recent days, the only cattle he owned.
He indicated that the Huimanguillo Cattle Ranch Association had reported that other cattle ranches had also lost more than 700 cattle due to poisoning from chicken manure.
He stated that they do not know how they will recover from this severe blow. Meanwhile, he warned the population to avoid eating meat of dubious origin, due to the serious situation facing the municipality’s producers and the health risks.
For his part, Andrés, another of the affected producers, lamented this problem, emphasizing that it is a new phenomenon that had not previously occurred in the region, and now many are forced to watch their cattle, their main asset, become sick and die. “We realize that the situation is getting worse every day. Every day there are more sick animals. Every day more animals are dying, so (…) it’s catastrophic, it’s desperate. We’re seeing our efforts, the efforts of our parents, and the efforts of our family vanish overnight,” he said.
For his part, Don Rodolfo, also a rancher in the municipality, said that given the speed at which the cattle are dying, there has been no time to react, making it difficult to save the animals, as one day they looked fine and the next they were already dying.
“The problem we’re experiencing isn’t just here, but for several ranchers in this area of the Huimanguillo savannah,” he commented, adding that so far he has counted 16 dead animals on his ranch, which also provide the livelihood of one of his brothers.
According to the Huimanguillo Livestock Association, the poisoning has been reported in 15 towns in the municipality and nearly 40 ranchers have been affected, resulting in losses in the millions, with each animal costing up to 40,000 pesos.
Source: eluniversal
