Veterinary legislation is the foundation of any efficient animal health policy, says Bernard Vallat, Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
The unprecedented challenges to animal health control and veterinary public health management policies are becoming increasingly clear, according to Dr Vallat. Global trade, climate change and the emergence and re-emergence of diseases that can spread across international borders faster than the incubation period of the majority of the priority diseases, make national veterinary services the key players in the prevention and control of animal diseases and in the improvement of food security, nutrition, food safety, veterinary public health and market access for animals and products. The more so in those countries where poverty and animal disease present serious daily problems that governments struggle to master.
In this context, veterinary legislation is a critical infrastructure element for all countries. In many OIE Member countries, the veterinary legislation has not been updated for many years and is obsolete or inadequate in structure and content for the challenges facing veterinary services in today's world.
As a starting point in considering the characteristics of effective legislation, Dr Vallat says that it is important that the veterinary services have the authority to enter livestock premises and other establishments and take the actions needed for early detection, reporting and rapid and effective management of any animal diseases as soon as they are detected. Such actions include the capacity to seize animals and products, to impose standstills, quarantine, testing and other procedures; to control animals and products at frontiers; and to require the destruction and safe disposal of animals and all articles considered to present a risk of disease transmission and to public health. These activities represent the core activities of veterinary services in the field of animal health control and veterinary public health and the legislation must provide the necessary authority as a minimum.
However, in today’s world, the scope of veterinary services' activities is much broader than in previous years, when the legislation may have been promulgated. Society has increasing expectations regarding the rights of individuals and the humane treatment of animals. It is well recognised that livestock owners can be reluctant to report disease and will even seek to hide diseased animals if they fear that their animals will be seized by the authorities as part of their response to a disease outbreak. To facilitate disease reporting, the veterinary legislation should make provision for compensation of owners for animals and products seized for disease control purposes when appropriate. The details of compensation arrangements may be covered in other specific legislation but appropriate principles should be included in the veterinary legislation.
Source: 5mpublishing
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