In Russia’s Kemerovo region, cattle are being culled, and checkpoints are being set up around farms and agricultural facilities. According to the official version, the cows are being euthanized due to a skin disease. Unofficially, however, sources say it may be foot-and-mouth disease, an acute viral infection that has also been detected in cattle in the Novosibirsk region. Preliminary reports suggest that between 2,000 and 4,000 cows were killed in one village in Kuzbass over the past week. Here’s what we know.

Mass cattle slaughter is underway in the Promyshlenny district of Kemerovo Region, where the administrative center is the town of Promyshlennaya, 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Kemerovo. Tatyana Kipryanova, a farmer and resident of Promyshlennaya who keeps 20 cows, told the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo that the cull began May 8 at the local dairy complex of JSC Vaganovo in the village of Vaganovo, 85 kilometers (53 miles) from Kemerovo. By May 11, she said, about 4,000 head had been slaughtered at the complex — up from the roughly 2,000 cited in earlier reports.

Checkpoints appeared outside Vaganovo and the complex was cordoned off on the evening of May 7. “We drove out there and filmed them bringing in tires and trees — they’re getting ready. They’re afraid to burn, though today [May 12] there’s a smell of smoke, so they’ve probably started,” Kipryanova said. She added that trucks covered with branches and boards had been leaving the site at night.

Kipryanova said cattle are also being slaughtered at the Rodnaya Zemlya farm in the village of Okunevo and at several private farms. The Okunevo complex denied this: “The cows are being milked, the milk is being drunk… Everything is great here.” Veterinary authorities have forbidden owners from moving or selling their livestock, Kipryanova said. Local residents fear a quarantine will be imposed on the area and their animals slaughtered.

The management of the Vaganovo livestock complex stated that operations were running normally and that the checkpoints had been set up as a routine measure on the recommendation of the veterinary authority. The veterinary authority said the enterprise had enhanced its sanitary protocols, organized additional examination of the herd, and was conducting ongoing monitoring of the epizootic and sanitary situation.

Roman Mayer (United Russia), the head of the enterprise and a member of the Kuzbass regional legislature, said cases of lumpy skin disease had been identified in the Vaganovo herd. Lumpy skin disease is a severe skin infection that causes nodules on animals’ skin and inflammation of the eyes and mucous membranes. Only a few percent of infected animals die from the disease.

The Kuzbass veterinary authority also stated that the animals had lumpy skin disease, adding that all private and farm households in Kuzbass were being vaccinated against it to prevent the disease from spreading. During the vaccination campaign, residents are not being shown any documents, including the name of the vaccine, according to the Telegram channel Sibirsky Ekspress. Authorities have maintained that lumpy skin disease was found only at Vaganovo and is not present at other farms.

Residents of Kemerovo Region believe the animals actually have foot-and-mouth disease, which has previously turned up in cattle in neighboring regions, primarily Novosibirsk Region. There, a pasteurellosis outbreak was cited as the reason for a mass slaughter, while foot-and-mouth disease was what the animals were actually found to have. A foot-and-mouth outbreak was also recorded in China in an area bordering the Altai Republic, where cattle were also slaughtered. “It’s all following the Novosibirsk region playbook… They’ll vaccinate us, our cows will definitely get sick because it’s already hot out, and then they’ll declare a quarantine,” Kipryanova said.

She also claims that authorities threatened residents of the Promyshlenny district over the spread of information about the disease. According to her, Kuzbass Governor Ilya Seredyuk, the head of the settlement, and his deputy met with residents of the village of Tarasovo during the vaccination campaign. “They made people sign non-disclosure agreements, and if anyone talks, they’ll all be sent to the SVO “ the farmer said.

On May 13, districts of Krasnoyarsk Krai bordering Kuzbass introduced a heightened-readiness regime in response to the animal disease in the neighboring region. A veterinary checkpoint appeared on the federal highway to inspect animals being transported and check their documentation.