Kyrgyzstan is a cattle-breeding country. Therefore, epizootic safety, necessity of registration and identification of cattle is an issue of high importance for us that we discussed during last ten years. Finally, it has gotten off the ground and the authorities have moved from words to deeds. Certainly, this is caused by the country's export attractiveness within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and food safety. Moreover, the world has not yet come up with nothing more effective than the cattle identification more effective.
What the cattle identification gives?
Accurate data on livestock numbers, management and forecasting of livestock production markets, planned anti-epizootic, treatment-and-prophylactic, veterinary-sanitary measures and much more.
When the cattle identification in Kyrgyzstan has started?
With the Law on Animal Identification adopted in 2013.
What followed further?
Then Kyrgyzstan received grant equipment from Russia - computers, smartphones, portable radio sets. In the framework of the UN FAO project, the French company Adventiel developed an identification system software.
The next stage was the training of specialists and veterinarians. UNDP Project “Capacity building of professionals of the Kyrgyz Republic for organization of the system of cattle identification and tracking in Kyrgyzstan in the framework of participation in the Eurasian Economic Union” provided training in two stages. Initially, 30 trainers were trained, and then they trained veterinarians and operators in the regions.
As a result, a large number of specialists professionally uses the System of Cattle Identification and Tracking (SCIT). Around 3000 farmers, private veterinarians, entrepreneurs and the staff of LSGs participated in more than 135 trainings throughout the country.
Although there were some nuances. Here what is the trainer Kurmanbek uulu Adylbek says, “We have faced certain problems on the ground. For example, many veterinarians did not know how to use computers and the Internet but the SCIT implies use of smartphones, computers, the Internet, special devices scanning the registration number on tags. Therefore, additionally to the theory, much attention was paid to these issues.”
Brief information
SCIT special tags are yellow «earrings» on the ears of cattle - a carrier of a large amount of information about the cattle, entered in a common database. A registrar - veterinarian who identifies cattle, employees of State Veterenary Inspection, as well as operators - employees of LSGS have access to the tags. «Earrings» meet the requirements of ICAR, the International Committee for Animal Recording, and are made of high-quality materials, safe for animal and human health, do not cause allergies.
What is in prospect?
Here, Kalysbek Zhumakanov, the director of the State Inspection on Veterinary and Phytosanitary Security under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, answers this question, “In the future and now we are continuing record keeping of newborn calves and foals, so the identification process will never end.”
Well, it is hard to disagree with him. Mirlan Dyikanbayev, Communication Specialist, UNDP Area Development Programme, Naryn oblast