Ambassador Richard Mills Jr., accompanied by Jeff Paretchan, a special adviser for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Armenia, were in Fresno on Monday to visit with ATG executive director Varoujan Der Simonian and veterinarian James Reynolds, ATG’s president. Among the issues for the meeting were ATG’s delivery of a prototype mobile veterinary diagnostic laboratory to help Armenian veterinarians prevent the spread of animal diseases and increase farm income. ATG is also working with Armenia’s agriculture ministry to establish a grape nursery to develop a new stock of grape vines in the Ararat Valley, where some established vineyards are infested by nematodes that attack the roots of the vines.

Mills capped his tour with a visit to the Armenian Museum of Fresno to see art by local artists as well as artists based in Armenia.