SAPS to Begin Inspections Following Reports of Meat Contaminated with Brucellosis

Farmer Tigran Yeghoyan informed reporters today that meat from animals infected with brucellosis is being sold at the Martuni market. In this regard, Anush Harutyunyan, head of the Information and Public Relations Division of the State Service for Food Safety of the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, stated in an interview with "A1+" that Yeghoyan's announcement is new information for them and will be treated as a warning.

She noted that inspections would begin promptly in connection with this. Harutyunyan further mentioned that previous inspections had been conducted, but no instances of selling meat contaminated with brucellosis had been encountered.

Earlier, Yeghoyan had told reporters that he witnessed a terrible phenomenon: "I saw, in this heat, a horse that had died a day earlier, and the person came and slaughtered it. I asked where they were taking it, and they said for sausage. But who eats that sausage? Our society. Where is the State Food Inspectorate, where is the Government, where are the relevant bodies? If there is slander in my statement, let them sue me for that. Dear journalists, let's go to the Gumi market in the morning around 5-5:30 a.m. and see what kind of meat they are bringing, loaded into the Soviet-era cars like 'Zhiguli' and 'GAZ 24.' I am saying this with full responsibility: dead meat. Recently I spoke with a meat seller who said they had brought in animals that had died two days ago; they said they separated the meat from the bones, soaked it in a bathtub, left it in a solution of manganese for a few hours, and the color changes, and this is what our generation eats."