Article 26U.K.Visits by official veterinarians in establishments in the protection zone
1.The competent authority shall ensure that official veterinarians carry out at least one visit to all the establishments referred to in Article 25, as soon as possible and without unjustified delay, after the official confirmation of an outbreak of a category A disease.
2.When carrying out the visits referred to in paragraph 1, official veterinarians shall perform at least the following activities:
(a)documentary checks, including production, health and traceability records analysis;
(b)verification of the implementation of the measures applied to prevent the introduction or spread of the relevant category A disease in accordance with Article 25;
(c)clinical examination of kept animals of listed species; and
(d)if necessary, collection of samples of animals for laboratory examination in order to confirm or rule out the presence of the relevant category A disease.
3.The competent authority may require further veterinary visits to the establishments in the protection zone to follow up on the situation.
4.The competent authority shall keep a record of activities and visits referred to in paragraph 1, 2 and 3 and the findings thereof.
5.By way of derogation from paragraph 1, where the radius of the protection zone set in Annex V is larger than 3 km, the competent authority may decide to require not the visit to all the establishments referred to in Article 25 but the visit of a representative number of those establishments in accordance with point A.3 of Annex I.