International

European Union - Overall Animal Health and Welfare

March 2007

• Introduction
• Animal Health:Community Animal Health Policy & Animal Health Strategy (2007-13)*
• Animal Welfare:Community Action Plan on the Protection and Welfare of Animals (2006-10)

Animal Health:
Community Animal Health Policy & Animal Health Strategy (2007-13)

• Purpose
• Context
• Scope
• Objectives
• Accountability
• Implementation
• Of Note to Canada

Purpose

• Specifically, the Community Animal Health Policy (CAHP) was developed to: protect and raise the health status and condition of animals in the EU, particularly animals that produce food, while permitting, within the EU, the trade and importing of animals and animal products in compliance with appropriate health standards and international obligations
• To date, the CAHP has:
• facilitated the trade in animal and animal products with animal health inspections at the point of origin instead of internal borders
• financed the eradication of many serious diseases
• prevented disease
• implemented the identification and traceability of animals
• controlled animal movement
• contained/eradicated some disease outbreaks
• allowed the EU market to function as a single unit
• The EC announced the development of a new Animal Health Strategy as one part of the CAHP in 2006 to focus on disease prevention and effective risk management based on the principle that prevention is better than a cure
• Key components of the CAHP include:
  • Preventative health measures for live animals, semen, ova and embryos and animal products
  • EC legislation on animal diseases:
• Animal Health Strategy to improve the prevention and control of animal disease in the EU
• Control measures as soon as the presence of a disease is suspected
• Programs to eradicate and monitor diseases already present in the EU
• EU financial contribution
  • Other measures to ensure the traceability of animals

Context

The CAHP is based on more than 600 EU regulations/directives and decisions, and recognizes that:

• animal health can cause food safety issues
• disease outbreaks cost money
• animal diseases can impact human health (i.e. BSE and AI)
• animal welfare issues are involved in the transport of animals, and the slaughter and killing during disease outbreaks

Scope

The CAHP has 9 policy areas:

• trade within the EU of live animals, semen, ova and embryos and products of animal origin
• importing live animal/animal products, semen ova and embryos
• control measures for eradication and monitoring of animal diseases
• animal traceability
• animal nutrition and feed additives/ residues
• veterinary medicinal products and residues in feed components that are of animal origin
• support on animal health research
• scientific advice with the assistance of EFSA (a scientific panel that reports on all aspects of animal health and welfare) and the EMEA (European Medicines Agency)
• financial aspects (compensation costs, resources)

Objectives

The overall objective of the CAHP is to: ensure food safety, protect the rural economy and society as a whole from the adverse affects of animal diseases and allow effective and efficient trade as a single EU market.

• The specific objectives of the CAHP are to:
• ensure coherence of the CAHP with international agreements (such as the SPS- Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement in the context of the WTO (World Trade Organisation), and other EU policies related to animal health: Common Agriculture (CAP), Public Health (zoonoses and residues), Animal Welfare, Fishery, Sustainable Development, Environment (i.e. safe disposal of animal carcases and animal by-products), Customs, Enterprise and Industry (pharmaceutical and veterinary medicines), Anti-Fraud (illegal imports/trade), External relations and trade, Research (vaccines and medicines) and Competition (member states/countries aid rules)
• minimize and simplify the regulatory burden
• allocate financial resources

The CAHP action plan includes measures to:

• Ensure excellent health status for EU animals, particularly food producing animals as a condition of trade in animals and animal products
• Control and eradicate certain animal diseases
• Prevent major animal diseases from being introduced into the EU
• Prevent the transmission of some zoonotic disease from animals to humans
• Eliminate undesirable agents/substances in food as a result of animal feeding/treatment or environmental contamination
• Promote farm practices that prevent the transmission of animal diseases and reflect EU ethical values

Accountability

The European Commission administers the Community Animal Health Policy (CAHP) on behalf of the citizens of the EU. Compliance and enforcement details are not yet available with respect to the responsibilities of member states/countries.

Implementation

The Animal Health Strategy will be announced in 2007, with the implementation strategy planned for 2007-2014. The objectives of this strategy are to strengthen disease prevention, simplify animal health legislation, provide for emergency vaccination as a viable option and finance new actions.

Of Note to Canada

Policies of the Animal Health Strategy will:

• facilitate trade internationally and among member states/countries by coordinating animal health policies across the member states/countries
• provide pro-active disease prevention
• involve a system to identify and trace animals

This Animal Health Strategy recognizes that:

• the rural economy needs protection
• healthy animals produce healthy and safe food
• animal diseases can be very expensive and can affect human health