The program of registration and numbering of bovine animals in the Republic of Armenia was approved during the Government session on June 11, 2020.

The RA Minister of Economy Tigran Khachatryan noted that the objective of the program is to introduce and launch a system of universal numbering and registration of bovine animals in Armenia, which, being an information platform on the number, distribution, and movement of bovine animals, and mandatory veterinary measures applied to bovine animals, will allow to significantly improve the level of surveillance and prevention of spread of animal diseases, diseases common for animals and humans, as well as the level of safety of food of animal origin.

“The program envisages to create an electronic information database for registration of existing bovine animals and data storage, which will be launched in September 2020 and, due to the technological processes of cattle breeding and technical and economic reasons, will be continuous,” said Tigran Khachatryan.

According to the Minister, in the initial year about 800,000 existing bovine animals will be numbered and registered in the whole territory of the Republic of Armenia, for which it is necessary to purchase a total of 1.6 million ear tags, while in the following years about 245,000 bovine animals will be registered annually.

The program will consist of two components: acquisition of items necessary for launching the system and provision of services, which directly relates to the actual numbering process, and digitization of data. The “Center for Agricultural Services” SNCO under the RA Ministry of Economy will coordinate and realize activities on organization of field works of the bovine animals’ numbering, their registration and digitization of data.

The program will contribute to establishment of the bovine animals’ numbering and registration institute, the availability of an accurate database on the number and sex and age structure of bovine animals in herds, the surveillance of bovine animals’ movements throughout the country and improvement of traceability, provision of a stable veterinary anti-epidemiological situation, increase of the level of food safety and public health, establishment of the precedent of an administrative register for other agricultural animals, and initiation of pre-requisites for establishment of the agricultural animals’ insurance institute in Armenia.