Animal Disease Control

The Diseases of Animals (NI) Order

The Department of Agriculture, with the approval of the Department of Finance, may spend money for the purpose of eradicating and preventing diseases of animals or poultry in Northern Ireland. It may make schemes under which the owners of herds of cattle may be paid such sums as are required for the purpose of eliminating tuberculosis in herds.

The Department may order, where the substantial majority of the animals or poultry are free from disease, to declare an eradication area for the purpose of the control of the disease. Where the Department is satisfied that the disease is, for practical purposes, non-existent, it may declare it an attested area for purposes of that disease. The Department may prohibit or regulate the movement of animals and poultry into or out of eradication areas, attested areas, and provide for exemptions by means of licences.

The Department may prepare guidance on appropriate bio-security measures to be taken in relation to specified diseases. If a person fails to comply with bio-security guidance, the same is admissible as evidence in proceedings in court in civil or criminal prosecutions relating to diseases of animals.

The Department may prescribe circumstances in which it may withhold compensation in part or in whole in respect of animals slaughtered, where the slaughter has been necessitated by brucellosis; where guidance relating to brucellosis has not been complied with by the person in charge of the animal.

The Department may

• prescribe methods of cleaning and disinfection;
• prescribe and regulate the marking of animals or poultry; the sale, supply, distribution, use, and destruction of any article intended for such marking; prescribe and regulate the seizure, detention, and disposal of a diseased or suspected animal or bird carried, kept, or otherwise dealt with in contravention of a Department of Agriculture Order;
• prescribe and regulate liability of the owners, consignors, consignees of animals or birds in respect of expenses connected with seizure, detention, or disposal; prescribe and regulate destruction, burial, disposal, and treatment of carcasses of animals and poultry dying while diseased or so suspected;
• prohibit or regulate the digging up of buried carcasses; prescribe and regulate the disinfection of clothes of persons employed who have come into contact or are likely to come into contact with diseased or suspected animals or poultry and the use of precautions against the spreading of disease by such persons; prohibit or regulate the sale, supply, and use of any fodder or litter by which disease might be spread;
• prescribe, regulate the use and distribution of anything, whether animate or inanimate, by which it appears to the Department disease might be carried or transmitted; prohibit or regulate the collection, holding, or processing of carcasses of animal or poultry products or anything, whether animate or inanimate, which has been in contact with the same; prescribe and regulate payment and recovery of expenses in respect of animals or poultry;
• prescribe and regulate circumstances in which expenses incurred by the Department may be recovered from any person who fails to comply with an Order made;
• prescribe, regulate, and secure periodical treatment of all sheep by effective dipping or use some other remedy for sheep scab; provide for exemptions from such prohibitions by means of the grant of a licence.

The Department may provide and maintain sheep dipping facilities and afford to the public, as the Department thinks proper, the use of those facilities and of appliances and materials necessary for that use.

A person commits an offence if, without lawful authority or excuse, they knowingly or recklessly do any act which causes or is intended to cause an animal or bird to be infected with a disease. A person commits an offence if, without lawful authority or excuse, they acquire or take possession of an animal or bird which they know or ought reasonably to know to be infected with a disease.

A person convicted of an offence above may be disqualified by a court from keeping or dealing in animals or poultry, generally or of a kind. Where they are convicted of a further offence, disqualification is mandatory.

The Department, if it is satisfied that it is expedient for the purpose of preventing the spreading of disease, may seize any carcass, fodder, feeding stuffs, litter, milk, egg, fertiliser, or other thing, and destroy, bury, dispose of, or treat anything so seized. The Department shall pay compensation for a carcass (subject to exceptions), for feeding, litter, milk, fertilisers, seized. The compensation is the value of the thing concerned.

Where anything destroyed, buried, or disposed of under an order could have been seized, the Department shall pay like compensation, as if it had been seized at the time of destruction, burial, or disposal.

The Department may by order designate any disease of, or organism carried in, animals or poultry which, in its opinion, constitutes a risk to human health. Where a disease or organism is so designated, the Department may by order provide for any provisions of the legislation shall have effect in relation that disease subject to such modifications as may be specified. Any provision of the legislation may be applied, subject to modifications, in relation to the presence of the organism in an animal or bird as if the presence of the organism was a disease.

The Department may by order require a person who in such circumstances as are specified by the order, knows or has reason to suspect that an animal or bird as is specified in the order is or was affected with a disease designated; or is the carrier of the organism designated, to furnish to such a person and in such form as is prescribed, information relating to the animal or bird so specified.

If it appears to the Department that a person may have information relating to an animal or bird with a disease designated, it may by notice require them to furnish information.

Where an inspector has power to believe an animal or bird in the above category is on any land, he may enter the land, may take such tests and samples of any animal, bird, feeding stuff, litter, dung, vessel, pen, vehicle, or other thing, as he thinks appropriate for ascertaining the presence of such animal or bird on the land. He may require the owner or person in charge of any animals or poultry to take reasonable steps as may be specified for the purpose of collecting or restraining them so as to facilitate the exercise of powers.

The Department may, with the approval of the Department of Finance and after consultation with representative bodies, make schemes for the purpose of keeping any animals or poultry, in so far as practicable, free from disease and in good health; controlling, and, in so far as practicable, reducing the incidence of any disease of animals or poultry; or compensating in whole or in part persons who incur loss or expense in consequence of the presence of any disease in an animal, bird, or carcass.

Schemes may provide for the examination, testing, and treatment of animals and poultry, entry of persons onto land where they are suspected on reasonable grounds to be kept; facilities to be made available to inspectors; and payments to be made to persons exercising powers in respect of examination, testing, and treatment.

The scheme may provide for

• the slaughter or the isolation and maintenance of any animals or poultry;
• regulating the movement or exposure for sale of animals and poultry;
• the compensation that may be paid for loss and expense in consequence of treatment carried out under the scheme; or the presence of any disease to which the scheme relates;
• raising of all or part of the monies out of which compensation is to be paid;
• any expenses incurred in connection with the scheme by means of levies imposed in respect of animals, poultry, or carcasses or the produce, produced in Northern Ireland of animals or poultry of a description to which the scheme applies and on persons carrying on business involving the rearing, buying, selling, or slaughtering of such animals or poultry, or producing produce from such animals or poultry;
• the duties of persons by whom, under the terms of the scheme, any sum raised is to be paid, collected, or remitted;
• the time, place, and manner of payment of any sum and provision for recovery of the sums; records, returns, notices, and certificates to be kept, and provision for inspection and verification of records by the Department.

The levies may be collected and administered through agricultural product marketing boards. Schemes may be voluntary or mandatory.

The Department may by order prohibit or regulate the manufacture, import, possession, sale, or supply of vaccines as may be specified. It may prohibit or regulate the administration to any animal or bird of vaccines as may be specified.

Regulations may provide for persons who are authorised to manufacture, import, sell, or supply vaccines; persons who may administer the same. They may provide for the issue of licences. They may require the keeping of records, furnishing of information to the Department and the exercise of powers and inspections in respect of such records and documents.

They may provide for the seizure, detention, and disposal of vaccines which are in contravention of the order. There may be provision for the seizure, detention, and disposal of any bird or animal to which a vaccine has been administered in breach of the order.

The Department may authorise veterinary inspectors or other officers of the Department to inspect animals or poultry for the purpose of disease control.