Quarantine has been declared in Chambarak, Martuni, Getik, Aygut communities of Gegharkunik Marz since the beginning of June.

The reason was cattle FMD discovered in the end of May in Vahan village bordering with Azerbaijan, as a result the Mayor of Gegharkunik Never Poghosyan had to declare Chambarak a prevention zone – quarantine was imposed from on 8^th June. This means that meat and dairy products cannot be brought in or out of the village. This certainly causes a big damage to the people living in that area in poverty. But who is to blame that outbreak of the disease does not diminish. In fact the outbreak of FMD started in this region in the end of March this year, however the Ministry of Agriculture concealed the fact. At that time “Hetk” had received alarms from the villagers.  

A State Service of Food Safety was established by the RA President’s order No NH-292-N of 11 December, 2010 on “Reorganization of state inspections of food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary of the RA Ministry of Agriculture into a state body operating in the administration of the RA Ministry of Agriculture”. As a result the staff of these inspections was dismissed from their jobs as of 1 April, 2011. 

Outbreak was spread in Gavar and neighboring Hatsarat in mid March. However it was not declared either. After the farmers made a noise about it the officials of the State Veterinary and Food Safety Inspection declared that 43 animals were infected, the disease was detained and the virus was eradicated. Considering the FMD incubation period it is likely that the virus was conveyed to Chambarak from these settlements.   

Responsible officials unanimously claim that the disease has penetrated to Chambarak region for Azerbaijan, hence trying to throw off their share of guilt. Whereas if the same officials performed their functions stipulated by law it would be possible to combat the virus penetrated from Azerbaijan or transmitted from Gavar. Simply the vaccination should be carried out on time.   

Taking into consideration that in different regions of Armenia the livestock is taken to the pasture from mid April the vaccination should be completed by then. Tender for procurement of vaccines should be held in December 2010 or January 2011 to get the vaccines in Armenia in February and the vaccination should be done in March, since the immunity to FMD is developed only 21 days after the vaccination. In fact the tender was not announced on time and, by the way the responsible person at that time and for many years was Grisha Baghyan, at present the First Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

The Information department of State Food Safety Service of the Ministry of Agriculture informed “Hetk” that 400.000 dose FMD vaccines were obtained and imported from 8^th April to 29 April. This is unprecedented, because to obtain vaccines arrangement should be made with the relevant organizations 3-4 months earlier. The source of “Hetk” in the Ministry of Agriculture reports that this was done due to interference of Grigor Grigoryan, at that time the newly appointed head of State Service of Food Safety. In April 30 the vaccine was already in the storehouse of the State Service of Food Safety. Note, that in 2010 UN FAO provided without indemnity 382 000 doses of FMD vaccines to the Ministry of Agriculture to carry out vaccination in the endangered areas. However, it is not clear why it was not used in 2010 and only in the end of April 2011 the vaccines were sent to regions.

Head of the Department of Agriculture and Plant Cultivation of the Municipality of Gegharkunik Vanik Hovhannisyan said that the livestock has been vaccinated, but it was belated: “The cattle should be vaccinated before taking to pasture, but it didn’t happened for the lack of vaccines. The livestock go to pasture in the end of April and the vaccination in our region was done in the end of May and in June” – the head of department added.

Obviously there is a discrepancy between the words of the Municipality official and the Food Safety Service officers. If the vaccine was imported on 29 April and distributed to regions within 3 days, then how did it happen that the vaccine reached Gegharkunik region a month later- in June, when the disease was already spread in the village Vahan and the vaccination was  no longer useful.

Effect of delayed vaccination

In Getik community under quarantine the cattle was vaccinated in mid May i.e. in the period when the cattle goes to pasture. The head of community Mr. Sargis Ayunts stated in our discussion that about 600 cattle was infected with FMD in their village: “Livestock vaccination coincided with the pasturing period. The scientists should find out why the cows were affected with the disease after that.” – added S. Ayunts. Apparently introduction of the vaccine to this community had been delayed, thus FMD vaccine injections were of no avail, and once again it was just waste of money.    

The Municipality also was not aware of the reason why the vaccine introduction in their region was delayed. “I don’t know; ask the Government, how can I answer to these questions?” –answered Vanik Hovhannisyan and added that incidences of FMD are being recorded in Chambarak region. However, we were told by the information unit of the Food Safety Service that they only deal with acquisition and distribution of vaccines.

 According to them introduction of vaccine in Gegharkunik Marz on 2^nd May is not tardy since the cattle is pastured late. But when we mentioned that in Getik community the cattle was vaccinated in the middle of May an employee whose name was Anahit answered that she has nothing to say: “We can say that a little delay of the import of vaccines this year was due to structural changes in our service, but it has no effect on the course of vaccination campaign. There were years when vaccine was introduced even in mid May.” – Anahit added.

We should note that when an outbreak is registered in any area vaccination of all animals in the surrounding neighborhoods should immediately follow. It is done to detain the infection and prevent further spread of the disease. Village Vahan was supplied with vaccine in April that was provided by UN FAO to the livestock farms. However, as the “Hetk” source of the Ministry of Agriculture informs the former employees of the State Food Safety and Veterinary Inspection have spread rumors that the newly appointed head of the State Service Grigor Grigoryan decided not to pay the salaries of veterinarians as new contracts have not been concluded with them after establishment of the new structure. According to the same source in some villages the veterinarians were impeded to perform vaccination by different methods.

Head of Public Relations unit of the State Service Babken Pipoyan in his turn clarified that vaccination is the function of the Ministry of Agriculture, and they only control /supervise the course of works. “Making vaccination is beyond our functions. We have notified in June that if a citizen asks veterinarian to vaccinate his livestock but it doesn’t happen, we advised them to refer to us so we can carry out appropriate function. There was no reference by citizens in this period. ” – said B. Pipoyan. He was doubtful about the issue that vaccine reached Gegharkunik region about a month after its import: “This information has yet to be verified; because it is possible that a veterinarian may tell he has no vaccine or possibly the farmer may say that the veterinarian did so.” – added Babken Pipoyan.

In response to our observation that we were told about the delay not by the “liar” villagers but the Municipality of Gegharkunik region, Babken Pipoyan noticed that he is taking a business trip to Chambarak for a week and he will clarify everything on site. 

Explanations for the same subject of the responsible officials of different agencies dealing with the same issue were so different that in some cases they were also surprised. For example, when we called to the head of PR department of the Ministry of Agriculture Vahag Martirosyan for clarification he advised us to refer to the State Service of Food Safety. And when we passed him the response of the latter he responded “So why that agency is established? The press secretary “dumps” and it’s not good for the newly created service to act like this”.

 The first Deputy Minister of Agriculture Grisha Baghyan , who occupied position of the head of the State Food Safety and Veterinary Inspection from February 2007 to January 12 this year, told us that the community veterinarian or the cattle owner can most precisely tell about the vaccination schedule, when the vaccine was in place and when the cattle was vaccinated. “My answer won’t be very accurate. If the Chambarak regional veterinarian tells that the vaccine was received in May or June it means there was a delay, because it was supposed to be in March-April. During the years of my management the structure was operating solid and everything was being performed. But this time there were delays due to some subjective and objective reasons” –said Grisha Baghyan. I didn’t want to name those subjective and objective reasons that caused late introduction and distribution of FMD vaccines. “I don’t want you to seek for contradictions confronting my statements” - added the first Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

What is the value of Grisha Baghyan’s justifications?

Since 2004 Grisha  Baghyan was managing veterinary inspectorate of the Ministry of Agriculture. This inspectorate was renamed to Food Safety and Veterinary State Inspectorate in 2007, which was managed by Grisha Baghyan until 2011. When studying materials on acquisition and import of vaccines from 2005-2010 it was revealed that the vaccines were always purchased late – in March April, sometimes even in May, i.e. the time schedule has always been violated and vaccination was done belated. To isslustrate the consequences of delayed vaccination some facts are presented below:

Year 2004 – FMD outbreaks in Shirak and Armavir regions;

Year 2005 – FMD outbreak in Shirak region;

Year 2006 – FMD outbreaks in Shirak and Aragatsotn regions;

Year 2007 – FMD outbreak in Syunik;

Year 2008 – FMD outbreak in Lori and Tavoush regions;

Year 2010 – FMD outbreak in Lori and Vayots Dzor regions;

These outbreaks were not declared officially. The Food Safety and Veterinary State Inspectorate always concealed this information. We should remember also outbreaks in some communities of classical swine fever from 2004-2010, African fever from 2007-2010 and poultry disease Newcastle from 2004-2010. If in the case of African fever it was possible to “justify oneself” telling that vaccine does not exist for this disease, then how the outbreaks of classical swine fever and Newcastle poultry disease can be explained, when every year the state acquires vaccines against these diseases. According to non official data of 2010 one million poultry was destroyed as a result of Newcastle outbreak. And all these happened during the years of management of the current Deputy Minister Grisha Baghyan.

Specialist:  “Prime Minister’s stated reforms are fiction”    

Note, that Grigor Grigoryan was appointed as head of State Service of Food Safety on 8 April this year after G. Baghyan. His appointment coincided with organizing veterinary measures. That is the reason why some officials of the Ministry of Agriculture try to ascribe the blame of vaccination delays to Grigor Grigoryan. G. Grigoryan refused to give any comments on activities of the structure that he managed for a few months.

Grigoryan was dismissed from his position on 12 July this year, however the reason for dismissal still remains unclear. One of the already former employees of the service commented about Grigor Grigoryan’s dismissal: “Grigoryan was crushing the system that was formed for decades and he was constructing a completely new and improved one. Despite the fact that the ex-system had swallowed almost everyone, he fought against it and as a result became the victim of the system. Grigor was not permitted to continue the work he started, because it was against the interests of a number of food importing and producing oligarchs, businessmen always winning state tenders, officials that impose charges on food services and some others’. So the reforms that the Prime Minister talks about are fiction”- said the unemployed specialist.  

The fact that the vaccine was distributed to regions in Many-June instead of March-April demonstrates poor performance of the State service of food safety. To our question whether the service is going to compensate the incurred loss to the farmers, the head of the PR department of the service could not answer. 

The farmers are not secured form similar cases also in future. Since the sector of agriculture is declared by the Government not a priority area as they announce but rather a real testing arena for other officials. In the place of Grigor Grigroyan the former secretary of the Central Election Committee Aram Bakhchagulyan is appointed as head of service, who has nothing to do with villages and has educational background in economics, unlikely to be associated in any way with vaccination of cows and sheep.

As for acquisition of FMD vaccines –it is a good business, misuse/ abuse of large amounts of money. In the tenders announced for procurement of vaccines for many years the same companies used to win. In the result of inspections carried out at the Ministry of Agriculture by the Control service of the Prime Minister it was revealed that if during those years the vaccine was procured at the international market price then USD 1.121.280 would be saved in 2008 and USD 827.191 in 2009. Meanwhile, due to negligence of state authorities the company that won the tender “Bio Universal” Ltd sold the vaccines to the state at twice expensive prices.

There is another fact that the state authorities should pay attention to. It turns out that this year all lots of vaccines and diagnostic testers were procured in the period of Grigor Grigoryan’s management resulting in AMD 167 million saving. This fact alone might be a sufficient reason for the dismissal. Can you imagine how many state officials were deprived from the opportunity to loot the country? This means that each year that much money was appropriated only during acquisition of vaccines.