diff --git a/python/obitools3/commands/count.pyx b/python/obitools3/commands/count.pyx
index f769a77..b951ed1 100755
--- a/python/obitools3/commands/count.pyx
+++ b/python/obitools3/commands/count.pyx
@@ -29,6 +29,12 @@ def addOptions(parser):
                         default=False,
                         help="Prints only the total count of sequence records (if a sequence has no `count` attribute, its default count is 1) (default: False).")
 
+    group.add_argument('-c','--count-tag',
+                        action="store", dest="count:countcol",
+                        default='COUNT',
+                        type=str,
+                        help="Name of the tag/column associated with the count information (default: COUNT).")
+
     
 def run(config):
     
@@ -41,18 +47,20 @@ def run(config):
     if input is None:
         raise Exception("Could not read input")
     entries = input[1]
-
+    
+    countcol = config['count']['countcol'] 
+    
     count1 = len(entries)
     count2 = 0
     
-    if COUNT_COLUMN in entries and ((config['count']['sequence'] == config['count']['all']) or (config['count']['all'])) :
+    if countcol in entries and ((config['count']['sequence'] == config['count']['all']) or (config['count']['all'])) :
         for e in entries:
             PyErr_CheckSignals()
-            count2+=e[COUNT_COLUMN]
+            count2+=e[countcol]
 
-    if COUNT_COLUMN in entries and (config['count']['sequence'] == config['count']['all']):
+    if countcol in entries and (config['count']['sequence'] == config['count']['all']):
         print(count1,count2)
-    elif COUNT_COLUMN in entries and config['count']['all']:
+    elif countcol in entries and config['count']['all']:
         print(count2)
     else:
         print(count1)