The Animal Diseases (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Order 2021

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order is made in exercise of powers conferred by the Animal Health Act 1981 (c. 22) (“the 1981 Act”).

Article 2 of this Order amends the Zoonoses Order 1989 (S.I. 1989/285) to add Coxiella burnetii to the organisms designated for the purposes of section 29 of the 1981 Act (organisms to which the specified provisions of the Act apply). The designation of Coxiella burnetii applies in relation to cases where that organism is carried in any cattle, sheep, camelids or goats. It also applies the requirement to report findings of organisms of the genus salmonella and brucella found in samples taken from animals to include samples taken from dogs.

Article 3 of this Order amends the Specified Diseases (Notification) Order 1996 (S.I. 1996/2628) (“the Specified Diseases Order”). It makes the following changes—

(a) the definition of “disease” in section 88 of the 1981 Act, in its application to article 3 (notification of specified diseases) of the Specified Diseases Order, is extended to include the diseases listed in the new Schedule 1A;

(b) article 3(4) of the Specified Diseases Order is amended to require notification by a person who, following analysis of a sample taken from an animal or carcase, reasonably suspects that an animal or carcase is infected with bovine genital campylobacteriosis, bovine viral diarrhoea, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus, bovine rhinotracheitis or infectious pustular vulvovaginitis, paratuberculosis or trichomonosis (listed in a new Schedule 1A);

(c) new articles 4A and 4B are inserted into the Specified Diseases Order, requiring notification of an occurrence, or suspected occurrence, of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans in an amphibian and Ebola virus in a primate; and

(d) the list of specified diseases in Part I of Schedule 1 to the Specified Diseases Order is amended to include contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, glanders (Burkholderia mallei) and surra (Trypanosoma evansi).

Article 4 of this Order amends the Diseases of Poultry (Wales) Order 2003 (S.I. 2003/1079 (W. 148)) to add a new duty to notify the Welsh Ministers of known or suspected cases of Avian Mycoplasmosis and Avian Chlamydiosis in certain species of birds. It also removes the requirement for a declaratory Order to be made upon confirmation of a designated disease in poultry and replaces this with the requirement for a declaration to be made instead.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to this Order. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment was not carried out as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with this Order.