YEREVAN. – The information, with respect to African swine plague-infected pigs’ dying in Armenia’s Tavush Region, is inaccurate, the Agriculture Ministry’s State Service on Food Safety Public Relations Department Head Babken Pipoyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.       

And with respect to the recent death of a buffalo in the same region, Pipoyan informed that the laboratory test results have revealed that this animal was infected with anthrax. “Tavush Region is under strict supervision; the inspectors and veterinarians are in control of the situation,” Pipoyan noted.    

In his words, people have become more cautious after the recent events and they call, in case of doubt, and everything is inspected on location. 

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, Zhoghovurd daily received calls Wednesday from the residents of Koti village in Tavush Region, the daily reported. 

“They told us that more than one-hundred pigs had died there this past one and a half months. In addition, the community’s animals have never been vaccinated this year. In their words, the pigs have the African swine plague, which occurred once before and it is diagnosed solely in England because there is no [corresponding] laboratory equipment in Armenia.     

We attempted to verify this information, but the very same community’s head Felix Melikyan was not responding to our phone calls while Tavush Regional Governor Armen Ghularyan was brief: ‘These are tales.’ In the Meantime, the residents are sounding an alarm,” Zhoghovurd wrote.