The Animal Health (Notification and Control Measures) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Order 2021

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

Article 2 of this Order amends the Zoonoses Order 1989 (“the Zoonoses Order”), which makes provision for the control of organisms carried in animals which constitute a risk to human health.

Article 2(2) of the Order amends the definition of “animal” within article 3 (interpretation) of the Zoonoses Order. Article 2(3) amends article 4 (designation of organisms for the purposes of section 29 of the Animal Health Act 1981) of the Zoonoses Order. It designates Coxiella burnetii as an organism carried in animals which constitutes a risk to human health and provides for provisions of that Act to apply in relation to the presence of Coxiella burnetii in any kind of mammal (except man) as if the presence of Coxiella burnetii were a disease to which that Act applied.

Article 2(4) of this Order amends article 8 of the Zoonoses Order (reporting of presence of designated organisms). Article 8 contains a duty to make a report to a veterinary officer of the Scottish Ministers where the presence or former presence of the organism mentioned in article 4 of the Zoonoses Order is identified in certain animals by laboratory or other examination (“the zoonoses reporting duty”). Article 8 is amended so that the zoonoses reporting duty applies in relation to the presence or former presence of Coxiella burnetii in any kind of mammal (except man). Article 8 is also amended so that the zoonoses reporting duty, insofar as relating to organisms of the genera Salmonella and Brucella, applies when the presence of former presence of the organism is identified in any cattle (including water buffalo and bison) or any dog.

Article 3 of the Order amends the Specified Diseases (Notification) Order 1996 (“the Specified Diseases Order”), which makes provision regarding duties of notification regarding animal diseases.

Article 3(2) amends article 3 (notification of specified diseases) of the Specified Diseases Order to extend, for the purposes of the Animal Health Act 1981 in its application to article 3 of the Specified Diseases Order, the definition of disease in section 88(1) of the Animal Health Act 1981 to comprise the five diseases listed in the new schedule 1A (further specified diseases) of the Specified Diseases Order. New schedule 1A is inserted into the Specified Diseases Order by article 3(6) of the Order. Article 3(2) of the Order also amends article 3(4) of the Specified Diseases Order to require that a person who, following analysis of a sample taken from any cattle, sheep, goats, ruminating animals, swine or ungulates (or a carcase of such an animal), suspects that the animal or carcase is infected with any disease listed in new schedule 1A must give notice to an veterinary inspector authorised by the Scottish Ministers, an inspector or a constable.

Article 3(3) inserts a new article 4A (notification of infection with Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans) into the Specified Diseases Order. The new article 4A contains notification duties regarding the suspicion, belief and knowledge of infection with Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans in four-footed amphibians of the group Caudata. Article 3(3) also inserts new article 4B (notification of Ebola virus) into the Specified Diseases Order. The new article 4B contains notification duties regarding the suspicion, belief and knowledge of and infection with Ebola virus in primates (other than man). Article 3(4) amends article 6 (offences) of the Specified Diseases Order to provide that breach of either of new articles 4A and 4B is an offence.

Article 3(5) amends the list of diseases in schedule 1 (specified diseases) of the Specified Diseases Order. This has the effect of extending the duties of notification in article 3 of the Specified Diseases Order so that they apply in relation to the suspicion, belief and knowledge of infection with contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, infection with Burkholderia mallei (glanders) and surra.

Article 4 of the Order amends the Diseases of Poultry (Scotland) Order 2003 (“the Diseases of Poultry Order”), which makes provision for the control of diseases in birds. Article 4(2) inserts a new article 3A (notification procedures to be taken where infection with avian mycoplasmosis or avian chlamydiosis is suspected) into the Diseases of Poultry Order. The new article 3A places a duty to give notice to a veterinary inspector authorised by the Scottish Ministers on any person who, following analysis of a sample taken from a bird or carcase of a bird, suspects that the bird or carcase is infected with avian mycoplasmosis or avian chlamydiosis.