The Zoonoses Amendment (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Order 2021

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

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(3) of the Order amends article 4 of the Zoonoses Order, which designates organisms for the purposes of section 29 of the Animal Health Act 1981 on the control of zoonoses. It designates severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as an organism carried in animals which constitutes a risk to human health, and provides for provisions of that Act (and accordingly the Zoonoses Order) to apply in relation to the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in any kind of mammal (except man) as if the presence of SARS-CoV-2 were a disease to which that Act applied.

Article 2(4) amends article 8 of the Zoonoses Order, which concerns the reporting of the presence of designated organisms. It amends article 8 to require the reporting of the former presence as well as the presence of a designated organism. It also amends article 8 to require that a report must be made to a veterinary officer of the Scottish Minsters by the person in charge of a laboratory where the presence or former presence of SARS-CoV-2 in any kind of mammal (except man) is identified by a laboratory examination, or by the person carrying out the examination where the presence is identified by an examination carried out elsewhere than at a laboratory.

Article 2(5) amends schedule 2 of the Zoonoses Order to specify further particulars to be contained in a report required by article 8 of the Zoonoses Order.