In addition to the definitions in Article 3, the following technical definitions shall apply:
‘compartment’ means one or more farms under a common biosecurity system containing an aquatic animal population with a distinct health status with respect to a specific disease;
‘common biosecurity system’ means that the same aquatic animal health surveillance, disease prevention, and disease control measures are applied;
‘containment area’ means an area around an infected farm or mollusc farming area where disease control measures are applied with the purpose of preventing the spread of the disease;
‘disease’ means a clinical or non-clinical infection with one or more aetiological agents in aquatic animals;
‘disease-free zones or compartments’ means zones or compartments declared disease-free in accordance with Articles 49 or 50;
‘emerging disease’ means a newly identified serious disease, the cause of which may or may not yet be established, that has the potential to be spread within and between populations, such as by way of trade in aquatic animals and/or aquatic animal products. It also means a listed disease identified in a new host species not yet included in Part II of Annex IV as a susceptible species;
‘epidemiological unit’ means a group of aquatic animals that share approximately the same risk of exposure to a disease agent within a defined location. This risk may be because they share a common aquatic environment, or because management practices make it likely that a disease agent in one group of animals would quickly spread to another group of animals;
‘fallowing’ means, for disease management purposes, an operation where a farm is emptied of aquaculture animals susceptible to the disease of concern or known to be capable of transferring the disease agent, and, where feasible, of the carrying water;
‘further processing’ means processing of aquaculture animals before human consumption by any type of measures and techniques affecting anatomical wholeness, such as bleeding, gutting/evisceration, heading, slicing and filleting, which produces waste or by-products and could cause a risk of spreading diseases;
‘increased mortality’ means unexplained mortalities significantly above the level of what is considered to be normal for the farm or mollusc farming area in question under the prevailing conditions. What is considered to be increased mortality shall be decided in cooperation between the farmer and the competent authority;
‘infection’ means the presence of a multiplying, or otherwise developing, or latent disease agent in, or on, a host;
‘infected zone or compartment’ means zones or compartments where the infection is known to occur;
‘quarantine’ means maintaining a group of aquatic animals in isolation with no direct or indirect contact with other aquatic animals, in order to undergo observation for a specified length of time and, where appropriate, testing and treatment, including proper treatment of the effluent waters;
‘susceptible species’ means any species in which infection by a disease agent has been demonstrated by natural cases or by experimental infection that mimics the natural pathways;
‘vector’ means a species that is not susceptible to a disease but which is capable of spreading infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another;
‘zone’ means a precise geographical area with a homogeneous hydrological system comprising part of a water catchment area from the source(s) to a natural or artificial barrier that prevents the upward migration of aquatic animals from lower stretches of the water catchment area, an entire water catchment area from its source(s) to its estuary, or more than one water catchment area, including their estuaries, due to the epidemiological link between the catchment areas through the estuary.