YEREVAN. – The Armenia State Service for Food Safety is developing new standards for the industrial storage of animals and birds.

Service Veterinary Inspectorate Chief Hovhannes Mkrtchyan stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Tuesday. In his view, Armenia needs to bring its standards into line with the European ones.

To the query as to whether this means that the country’s poultry farms should reduce the density of the poultry that are kept in cages, Mkrtchyan responded that, first, the average surface area for one bird needs to be determined, this should be compared with European standards, and, subsequently, it should be determined whether or not the poultry farms need to recondition their products.

In line with the European Union regulations, each bird in the poultry farms needs to have a 750 square centimeter space, whereas the traditional narrow cages (nets) are prohibited in large poultry farms.