Controlling Livestock and Poultry Disease in Armenia
Ag Minister visits state-of-the-art livestock diagnostic laboratory to talk to University of California officials about setting up a similar lab in Yerevan
by Paul Chaderjian
Asbarez.com
(Tulare, California) – Top California scientists who help manage the health of dairy herds, maintain animal health standards and manage food safety issues in the Golden State are now being tapped to help Armenia compete in the international marketplace.
A joint venture between Armenia's Ministry of Agriculture, the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the Armenian Technology Group (ATG) will help Armenia establish an unprecedented central diagnostic laboratory that can control livestock diseases, prevent the consumption of unhealthy food and make it possible for the country to export beef, chicken and dairy products to Europe.
The project, spearheaded by the ATG, is why Armenia's Agriculture Minister, Tavit Lokian, visited the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, California, last week. The Tulare facility, located in the largest dairy producing county in the US, is one of five diagnostic laboratories in California. The UCD lab helps maintain the health and productivity of the livestock population by providing quick diagnostic services for infectious diseases like tuberculoses and foot-and-mouth disease and natural metabolic diseases in animals.
"If Armenia wants to export any livestock products like meat and cheese, chickens, pigs, all international trade agreements require accurate diagnosis of diseases and reporting," says Jim Reynolds, a UCD clinician, who is also a member of the ATG Board of Directors. "If the country has foot and mouth disease, then the trading partners will not want to take the products. So Armenia needs a central laboratory to be able to diagnose diseases and then export to Western countries."
In order to establish the central diagnostic lab, the ATG is lobbying Congress for a 1.5 million dollar allocation from the 90-million dollars set aside for Armenia. When the allocation is approved, the ATG will be able to secure the property for the lab, build the lab and utilize the resources of the University of California to train and manage the site in Armenia.
"We have the House Appropriations Bill funding for the diagnostic laboratory that they [ATG] are wanting build," says Deborah Hurley, district representative of Central Valley Congressman George Radanovich. "Right now, it's listed in the House version, but it's not in the Senate version."
Both houses of Congress are expected to approve the expenditure for the lab, since the lab will also help the US maintain food safety and prevent contaminations at home. "Armenia can export to the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] but not outside," says Reynolds. "It is important to the US to have the lab there to be able to detect the diseases before they enter Western Europe through the backdoor – which is Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics of the CIS."
Minister Lokian's visit comes only three months after US Ambassador to Armenia John Ordway visited the same lab in Tulare to see first hand the research and work UC scientists are conducting and plan to conduct in Armenia. When the funding is approved, the ATG will manage the lab for the first five years with supervision from UC Davis. During the first five years, UC scientists will train Armenian veterinarians and pathologists, who will then manage the lab under the direction of Minister Lokian and the Ministry of Agriculture.
In addition to the urgent need to establish a central diagnostic lab in Armenia, Minister Lokian told ATG's Board of Directors during his visit to California that two of his top priorities are Armenia's need for fertilizer and farming machinery. Lokian explained that traditionally Armenia received its fertilizer from the neighboring Republic of Georgia, but due to the economic situation in the region, Georgia has not been able to provide the material.
"The next priority was the machinery, farming machinery," says Nubar Tashjian, an ATG Board Member. "Armenia has a great deal of problems with enormous amount of land in the Ararat Valley, which has been turning into saline. It's a very expensive process, desalinization, but they figure that the increase in farm production within five years would far surpass the entire cost of desalinization."
"They also lack crop varieties that are more productive than the Russian varieties of wheat and seed and so forth," says Victor Sahatjian, also a member of the ATG Board of Directors. "And again the fertilizer needs. They just want help. They want to modernize, and they need to privatize land ownership amongst the population of Armenia to move forward."
Tashjian said the ATG has had great success in Armenia over the past decade by providing grain products. "With our methods of production, with our specialized wheat seeds, we have had phenomenal success, where applied. As one of the farmers told me, he improved production by 400 percent, which is just tremendous. But despite that, you can't convince some of the older farmers. Simply, the old way was good enough for daddy, good enough for grand daddy, good enough for great grand daddy before that, so change will come with younger people."
ATG members say they are optimistic, because a whole new generation of young people are graduating from the American University in Yerevan and other technical schools in Armenia, and as Tashjian says, "They are the promise for that country, because they are willing to get away from the notion that the government will do something for them."
*end*
(PHOTO CAPTION OF MINISTER WITH FRESNO CO. JUDGES)
THE "KUFTA KONNECTION"
While visiting the Asbarez Armenian Center in Downtown Fresno, Minister Lokian was introduced to two Fresno County Superior Court Judges, who were at the center for their weekly Kharpertsi Kufta fix. Judge Debra Kazanjian and Judge Edward Sarkisian were pleased to meet the Minister. "It was a total and very pleasant surprise to meet him," said Judge Sarkisian. "He asked us what type of judges we were. He's very inquisitive, a very sharp individual. So, we thanked him for coming to our country and told him about the other members of the judiciary who are Armenian."
by Paul Chaderjian
Asbarez.com
(Tulare, California) – Top California scientists who help manage the health of dairy herds, maintain animal health standards and manage food safety issues in the Golden State are now being tapped to help Armenia compete in the international marketplace.
A joint venture between Armenia's Ministry of Agriculture, the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the Armenian Technology Group (ATG) will help Armenia establish an unprecedented central diagnostic laboratory that can control livestock diseases, prevent the consumption of unhealthy food and make it possible for the country to export beef, chicken and dairy products to Europe.
The project, spearheaded by the ATG, is why Armenia's Agriculture Minister, Tavit Lokian, visited the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, California, last week. The Tulare facility, located in the largest dairy producing county in the US, is one of five diagnostic laboratories in California. The UCD lab helps maintain the health and productivity of the livestock population by providing quick diagnostic services for infectious diseases like tuberculoses and foot-and-mouth disease and natural metabolic diseases in animals.
"If Armenia wants to export any livestock products like meat and cheese, chickens, pigs, all international trade agreements require accurate diagnosis of diseases and reporting," says Jim Reynolds, a UCD clinician, who is also a member of the ATG Board of Directors. "If the country has foot and mouth disease, then the trading partners will not want to take the products. So Armenia needs a central laboratory to be able to diagnose diseases and then export to Western countries."
In order to establish the central diagnostic lab, the ATG is lobbying Congress for a 1.5 million dollar allocation from the 90-million dollars set aside for Armenia. When the allocation is approved, the ATG will be able to secure the property for the lab, build the lab and utilize the resources of the University of California to train and manage the site in Armenia.
"We have the House Appropriations Bill funding for the diagnostic laboratory that they [ATG] are wanting build," says Deborah Hurley, district representative of Central Valley Congressman George Radanovich. "Right now, it's listed in the House version, but it's not in the Senate version."
Both houses of Congress are expected to approve the expenditure for the lab, since the lab will also help the US maintain food safety and prevent contaminations at home. "Armenia can export to the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] but not outside," says Reynolds. "It is important to the US to have the lab there to be able to detect the diseases before they enter Western Europe through the backdoor – which is Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics of the CIS."
Minister Lokian's visit comes only three months after US Ambassador to Armenia John Ordway visited the same lab in Tulare to see first hand the research and work UC scientists are conducting and plan to conduct in Armenia. When the funding is approved, the ATG will manage the lab for the first five years with supervision from UC Davis. During the first five years, UC scientists will train Armenian veterinarians and pathologists, who will then manage the lab under the direction of Minister Lokian and the Ministry of Agriculture.
In addition to the urgent need to establish a central diagnostic lab in Armenia, Minister Lokian told ATG's Board of Directors during his visit to California that two of his top priorities are Armenia's need for fertilizer and farming machinery. Lokian explained that traditionally Armenia received its fertilizer from the neighboring Republic of Georgia, but due to the economic situation in the region, Georgia has not been able to provide the material.
"The next priority was the machinery, farming machinery," says Nubar Tashjian, an ATG Board Member. "Armenia has a great deal of problems with enormous amount of land in the Ararat Valley, which has been turning into saline. It's a very expensive process, desalinization, but they figure that the increase in farm production within five years would far surpass the entire cost of desalinization."
"They also lack crop varieties that are more productive than the Russian varieties of wheat and seed and so forth," says Victor Sahatjian, also a member of the ATG Board of Directors. "And again the fertilizer needs. They just want help. They want to modernize, and they need to privatize land ownership amongst the population of Armenia to move forward."
Tashjian said the ATG has had great success in Armenia over the past decade by providing grain products. "With our methods of production, with our specialized wheat seeds, we have had phenomenal success, where applied. As one of the farmers told me, he improved production by 400 percent, which is just tremendous. But despite that, you can't convince some of the older farmers. Simply, the old way was good enough for daddy, good enough for grand daddy, good enough for great grand daddy before that, so change will come with younger people."
ATG members say they are optimistic, because a whole new generation of young people are graduating from the American University in Yerevan and other technical schools in Armenia, and as Tashjian says, "They are the promise for that country, because they are willing to get away from the notion that the government will do something for them."
*end*
(PHOTO CAPTION OF MINISTER WITH FRESNO CO. JUDGES)
THE "KUFTA KONNECTION"
While visiting the Asbarez Armenian Center in Downtown Fresno, Minister Lokian was introduced to two Fresno County Superior Court Judges, who were at the center for their weekly Kharpertsi Kufta fix. Judge Debra Kazanjian and Judge Edward Sarkisian were pleased to meet the Minister. "It was a total and very pleasant surprise to meet him," said Judge Sarkisian. "He asked us what type of judges we were. He's very inquisitive, a very sharp individual. So, we thanked him for coming to our country and told him about the other members of the judiciary who are Armenian."
