CHAPTER I

SUBJECT MATTER, SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

Subject matter and scope
Article 1
1
This Regulation lays down veterinary certification requirements for imports into and transit, including storage during transit, through Great Britain of the following commodities (the commodities):
a
poultry, hatching eggs, day-old chicks and specified pathogen-free eggs;
b
meat, minced meat and mechanically separated meat of poultry, including ratites and wild game-birds, eggs and egg products.
It lays down a list of third countries and makes provision for the specification for the purposes of this Regulation by the Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish Ministers (in relation to Scotland) and the Welsh Ministers (in relation to Wales), of territories, zones and compartments from which the commodities may be imported into Great Britain.
2
This Regulation shall not apply to poultry for exhibitions, shows or contests.
3
This Regulation shall apply without prejudice to specific certification requirements provided for in agreements between the United Kingdom and third countries.

Definitions
Article 2
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
1. ‘poultry’ means fowl, s, guinea fowl, ducks, geese, quails, pigeons, pheasants, partridges and ratites (ratitae), reared or kept in captivity for breeding, the production of meat or eggs for consumption, or for restocking supplies of game;
2. ‘hatching eggs’ means eggs for incubation, laid by poultry;
3. ‘day-old chicks’ means all poultry less than 72 hours old, not yet fed and muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata) or their crosses, less than 72 hours old whether or not fed;
4. ‘breeding poultry’ means poultry 72 hours old or more, intended for the production of hatching eggs;
5. ‘productive poultry’ means poultry 72 hours old or more, reared for:
  1. the production of meat and/or eggs for consumption; or
  2. the restocking of supplies of game;
6. ‘specified pathogen-free eggs’ means hatching eggs which are derived from ‘chicken flocks free from specified pathogens’, as described in the European Pharmacopoeia , and which are intended solely for diagnostic, research or pharmaceutical use;
7. ‘meat’ means edible parts of the following animals:
  1. poultry, which, when relating to meat, means farmed birds, including birds that are farmed as domestic animals without being considered as such, with the exception of ratites;
  2. wild game-birds that are hunted for human consumption;
  3. ratites;
8. ‘mechanically separated meat’ means the product obtained by removing meat from flesh-bearing bones after boning or from poultry carcases, using mechanical means resulting in the loss or modification of the muscle fibre structure;
9. ‘minced meat’ means de-boned meat that has been minced into fragments and contains less than 1 % salt;
10. ‘zone’ means a clearly defined part of a third country containing an animal subpopulation with a distinct health status with respect to a specific disease for which the required surveillance, control and biosecurity measures have been applied for the purpose of imports under this Regulation;
11. ‘compartment’ means one or more poultry establishments in a third country under a common biosecurity management system containing a poultry subpopulation with a distinct health status with respect to a specific disease or diseases for which the required surveillance, control and biosecurity measures have been applied for the purpose of imports under this Regulation;
12. ‘establishment’ means a facility or part of a facility which occupies a single site and is devoted to one or more of the following activities:
  1. pedigree breeding establishment: an establishment which produces hatching eggs for the production of breeding poultry;
  2. breeding establishment: an establishment which produces hatching eggs for the production of productive poultry;
  3. rearing establishment either:
    1. a breeding poultry-rearing establishment which rears breeding poultry prior to the reproductive stage; or
    2. a productive poultry-rearing establishment which rears egg-laying productive poultry prior to the laying stage;
  4. keeping of other productive poultry;
13. ‘hatchery’ means an establishment which incubates and hatches eggs and supplies day-old chicks;
14. ‘flock’ means all poultry of the same health status kept on the same facilities or in the same enclosure and constituting a single epidemiological unit; as regards housed poultry, this definition includes all birds sharing the same airspace;
15. ‘avian influenza’ means an infection of poultry caused by any influenza A virus:
  1. of the subtypes H5 or H7;
  2. with an intravenous pathogenicity index (IVPI) in six-week old chickens greater than 1,2; or
  3. causing at least 75 % mortality in four- to 8-week-old chickens infected intravenously;
16. ‘highly pathogenic avian influenza’ (HPAI) means an infection of poultry caused by:
  1. avian influenza viruses of the subtypes H5 or H7 with genome sequences codifying for multiple basic amino acids at the cleavage site of the haemagglutinin molecule similar to that observed for other HPAI viruses, indicating that the haemagglutinin molecule can be cleaved by a host ubiquitous protease;
  2. avian influenza as defined in point 15(b) and (c);
17. ‘low pathogenic avian influenza’ (LPAI) means an infection of poultry caused by avian influenza viruses of subtypes H5 or H7 other than HPAI;
18. ‘Newcastle disease’ means an infection of poultry:
  1. caused by any avian strain of the paramyxovirus 1 with an intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) in day-old chicks greater than 0,7; or
  2. multiple basic amino acids have been demonstrated in the virus (either directly or by deduction) at the C-terminus of the F2 protein and phenylalanine at residue 117, which is the N-terminus of the F1 protein; the term ‘multiple basic amino acids’ refers to at least three arginine or lysine residues between residues 113 and 116; failure to demonstrate the characteristic pattern of amino acid residues as described in this point requires characterisation of the isolated virus by an ICPI test; in this definition, amino acid residues are numbered from the N-terminus of the amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the F0 gene, 113-116 corresponds to residues -4 to -1 from the cleavage site;
19. ‘official veterinarian’ means the veterinarian designated by the competent authority;
20. ‘differentiating infected from vaccinated animal (DIVA) strategy’ means a vaccination strategy which enables a differentiation to be made between vaccinated/infected and vaccinated/non-infected animals through the application of a diagnostic test designed to detect antibodies against the field virus and the use of non-vaccinated sentinel birds.
21. ‘appropriate authority’ means the Secretary of State (in relation to England), the Welsh Ministers (in relation to Wales) and the Scottish Ministers (in relation to Scotland); but the ‘appropriate authority’ is the Secretary of State if consent is given by:
  1. in relation to Wales, the Welsh Ministers;
  2. in relation to Scotland, the Scottish Ministers.
22. ‘third country’ means any country or territory other than the British Islands.
23. “additional guarantees”, except in Annex 3, means the guarantees
required in a document published by the Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish Ministers (in relation to Scotland) and the Welsh Ministers (in relation to Wales), under Article 5
.

Code of third country, territory, zone or compartment
Article 2a
The Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish Ministers (in relation to Scotland) and the Welsh Ministers (in relation to Wales), may specify in a document published for the purposes of this Article a system of words, letters or numbers representing, for the purposes of a veterinary certificate under this Regulation, a third country or a territory, zone or compartment of a third country.
http://www.edqm.eu (latest edition).
Words in Art. 1(1) substituted (31.12.2020) by The Import of, and Trade in, Animals and Animal Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1462), regs. 1(3), 53(2)(a)(i) (with regs. 69-71)
Words in Art. 1(1) substituted (31.12.2020) by The Import of, and Trade in, Animals and Animal Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1462), regs. 1(3), 53(2)(a)(ii) (with regs. 69-71)
Words in Art. 1(3) substituted (31.12.2020) by The Import of, and Trade in, Animals and Animal Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1462), regs. 1(3), 53(2)(b) (with regs. 69-71)
Art. 2(21)(22) inserted (31.12.2020) by The Import of, and Trade in, Animals and Animal Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/1462), regs. 1(3), 53(3) (with regs. 69-71)
Art. 2a inserted (1.7.2022) by The Import of Animals and Animal Products and Approved Countries (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/735), regs. 1(2), 3(4)
Words in Art. 1(1) substituted (1.7.2022) by The Import of Animals and Animal Products and Approved Countries (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/735), regs. 1(2), 3(2)
Art. 2(23) inserted (1.7.2022) by The Import of Animals and Animal Products and Approved Countries (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/735), regs. 1(2), 3(3)
Words in Art. 2(23) substituted (10.2.2025) by The Official Controls (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/102), regs. 1(1)(b), 34(2)