More than 3,000 endangered Saiga antelopes have died in a suspected epidemic in Kazakhstan, an environmental official said yesterday.

So far, 3,271 of the small antelopes have been found dead, an agriculture ministry official, Akhmetzhan Sultanov, told journalists, cited by Interfax-Kazakhstan.

The animals appear to have died from an infectious disease, pasteurellosis, Mr Sultanov said. The often-deadly infection strikes the lungs and intestines, and needs to be treated with antibiotics.

A ministry official said last week that the investigators initially believed the animals had been poisoned.

Saiga antelopes, which have distinctive bulbous noses, are listed as a critically endangered species by WWF, with an estimated population of 50,000.

The Kazakh agriculture ministry puts the country's population at 81,000 antelopes, however.