The Animal Health Law-Regulation EU 2016429 and th

Journal of Food Science and Engineering 8 (2018) 61-64

doi: 10.17265/2159-5828/2018.02.001

D

DAVID PUBLISHING

The Animal Health Law-Regulation EU 2016/429 and the

Future of Food Safety and Free Commerce in Europe

Giancarlo Ruffo, Valentina Locatelli, Francesco Maraschi and Paola Fossati

Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, Universitàdegli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 12, Milano 20133, Italia

Abstract: The aim of this study was to analyze the contents of Reg. (EU) No. 429/2016, and to assess its role in guaranteeing the

efficient application of the disease prevention and control rules into member state. Furthermore, the authors evaluated the impact of

the abovementioned Regulation on the legislation on public health and food safety already in force in Europe (Regulations EC No.

178/2002, No. 882/2004, No. 853/2004) and considered the global impact of the new rules on the effective functioning of the internal

market. The study pays attention also to the TFEU (treaty of lisbon on the functioning of the European union) procedure to delegate

to the commission the power to adopt non-legislative acts of general application that supplement or amend certain non-essential

elements of a legislative act.

Key words: Animal health law, food safety, veterinary official controls, EU Regulation, public health, transmissible animal diseases,

disease notification.

1. Introduction

The authors analyze the Regulation (EU) No.

429/2016 on transmissible animal diseases and

All Rights ng and repealing certain acts in the area of

animal health (“Animal Health Law”), and assess it in

the light of the European Food Safety Legislation

already in force. The study regards the subject matter

and aim of the Regulation, focusing on “key” acts:

transmissible disease listing and categorysation,

disease notification, disease prevention and control

rules, including disease notification, reporting,

surveillance, eradication.

general principles and requirements of food law [3];

y Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 official controls

on feed and food law, animal health and animal

welfare rules [4];

y Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 laying down

specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin [5].

The Regulation (EU) No. 429/2016 considers the

links between animal health and public health, the

environment, food and feed safety, animal welfare,

food security, together with economic, social and

cultural aspects [1]. The animal health measures

provided in this Regulation are taken on the basis of the

risk assessment and of the available scientific evidence;

in this last regard, the work of the EFSA (European

Food Safety Authority) is very important [3, 6].

In order to ensure the correct and harmonized

application of the Regulation (EU) No. 429/2016, and

to ensure the same animal health status in all member

states, the European legislator has established a list of

transmissible animal diseases, which pose a risk to

animal or public health in the union (Article 5 and

Annex II), and has delegated to the commission the

power to adopt acts amending the Annex II (Articles 6,

2. Methodology

The authors analyze the following legislation:

y Regulation (EU) No. 429/2016, “Animal Health

Law” [1];

y Treaty of Lisbon-TFEU (treaty of lisbon on the

functioning of the European union), 2009 [2];

y Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 laying down the

Corresponding Author: Paola Fossati, DVM, assistant

professor of animal law, research fields: animal ethics and

veterinary forensic medicine.

62The Animal Health Law-Regulation EU 2016/429 and the Future of

Food Safety and Free Commerce in Europe

7) [1, 8, 10, 11].

The listings provided in Article 5 and in Annex II to

Regulation (EU) No. 429/2016 contain the following

diseases (Table I):

Table I listings of diseases.

Art. 5

Foot and mouth disease

Classical swine fever African swine fever

Highly pathogenic

avian influenza

African horse sickness

ANNEX II

Rinderpest

(cattle plague)

Sheep pox or goat pox

Sheep and goat plague

Rift Valley fever

Swine vesicular disease

Lumpy skin disease

Bluetongue Teschen disease

Vesicular stomatitis

Venezuelan equine viral

encephalomyelitis

Contagious bovine

Bovine brucellosis (B.

Hemorrhagic disease of deer

Newcastle disease Bovine tuberculosis

pleuropneumonia

abortus)

Transmissible

Ovine and caprine

spongiform

brucellosis Anthrax Rabies Echinococcosis

encephalopathies

(B. melitensis)

(TSE)

Salmonellosis (zoonotic

Campylobacteriosis Listeriosis Trichinellosis Verotoxigenic E. coli

salmonella)

Epizootic ulcerative

Viral haemorrhagic Infectious hematopoietic Epizootic hematopoietic Infection with

syndrome in fish

septicæmia (VHS) necrosis (IHN) necrosis in fish (EHN) Bonamiaexitiosa

(EUS)

Infection with Perkinsus Infection with Taura syndrome in Yellowhead disease in Koi herpes virus disease

marinus Microcytosmackini crustaceans crustaceans (KHV)

Infectious salmon anaemia Infection with Marteilia Infection with Bonamia White spot disease in

(ISA) refringens ostreae crustaceans

A disease is considered to be an “emerging disease”

All Rights it is not yet included in listing diseases provided

for in Article 5.

The Article 18 regulates the animal disease

notification. Disease notification is compulsory for

several cases. When there are any reasons to suspect

the presence in animals of a listed disease (Article 5),

or where the presence of such a disease is detected in

animals, the operators immediately notify the

competent authority [1, 7, 9, 11]. Those diseases do

not normally occur in the union and for their

immediate eradication, specific measures must be

taken (point (a) of Article 9 (1)) [1, 7].

When there are any reasons to suspect the presence

in animals of a listed disease for which there is a need

for surveillance within the European union, or where

the presence of such a disease is detected in animals,

the operators notify the competent authority of the

appearance of the disease as soon as practicable (point

(e) of Article 9 (1)) [1, 7].

Notification within member states:

when there are the presence of abnormal mortalities

and other signs of serious disease or significant

decreased production rates with an undetermined

cause, the operators notify a veterinarian of them; he

or she shall carry out further investigation, including

sampling for laboratory examination [1].

The member state may decide that the notifications

provided for in late point may be directed to the

competent authority [1].

The commission shall adopt rules to prevent and to

control disease, with regard to risk assessment and

seriousness of disease [2, 3].

The Reg. (EU) No. 429/2016 lays down that the

commission shall adopt delegated acts or

implementing acts (Articles 291 and 290 of the

TFEU), respecting the requirements provided for by

the same Regulation [1, 2].

The Article 270 of Reg. (EU) No. 429/2016 repeals

a lot of decisions, directives and only a few

regulations (No. 1760/2000), with the goal to ensure

the correct application of legislation on veterinary and

The Animal Health Law-Regulation EU 2016/429 and the Future of

Food Safety and Free Commerce in Europe

63zootechnical matters[1, 10].

3. Results and Discussion

The EU has experienced in 1994 the health

emergency with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy

(BSE) [8, 10, 11]. This experience has led the

European legislator to use the instrument of the

Regulation in order to harmonize legal behavior at EU

level, aiming to ensure high standards of human health

and a functioning internal market, with regard to trade

in live animals and foods from animal origin [8, 10,

11].

The Reg. (EC) No. 178/2002, was born in a time of

emergency; it represented the foundation of food law

and declared the principles of food safety in all

countries of the European union and also with

reference to third countries (import/export). With Reg.

(EC) No. 178/200, the union governed directly food

safety, and it gave power to member states [3, 11].

However the Legislation on food safety was

missing an essential and primary aspect, which is the

harmonization of animal health, together with the

uniformity of measures in cases of infectious diseases

that had repercussions on human health [4-6, 8, 10,

11].

Animal health was regulated so messy, confusing

and not harmonized, divided between directives and

decisions, and animal health rules of the individual

member states, which, depending on the internal

health problems, autonomously decided which

infectious diseases should be notifiable and which

were the restrictive health measures on animal

movements [8, 10, 11].

4. Conclusions

Like the Reg. (EC) No. 178/2002 on food safety,

the new Reg. (EU) No. 429/2016 represents a starting

basis for future legislation or acts on the protection of

animal health [1, 3].

The list of notifiable diseases provided for by Reg.

(EU) No. 429/2016 has the effect of indirectly but

immediately modifying all the lists of infectious

diseases contained in the existing European directives

and decisions, and also the laws of member states on

the same issue [1, 7, 9-11], with the aim to address

uniform conditions for the health status of animals in

the European union, and to make sure that the EU

internal market will be safe and so will be the trade in

live animals, while avoiding movement restrictions

imposed by the national veterinary laws of single

member states [3, 4, 7, 9].

Reg. (EU) No. 429/2016, which shall apply from 21

April 2021, will impact on EU animal health

legislation, because it will supplement existing

provisions on food safety, even with regard to the

management of bio-security in animal breeding and

derived products.

According to this regulation, animal health will no

longer be governed by individual member states but

the European union itself will directly order measures

to fight against transmissible diseases of animals.

References

[1] Regulation (EU) 2016/429 of the European Parliament

and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on Transmissible

Animal Diseases and Amending and Repealing Certain

Acts in the Area of Animal Health (“Animal Health

Law”).

[2] Treaty of Lisbon on the Functioning of the European

Union (TFEU), 2009.

[3] Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 Laying

down the General Principles and Requirements of Food

Law, Establishing the European Food Safety Authority

and Laying down Procedures in Matters of Food Safety.

[4] Regulation (EC) No. 882/2004 Official Controls on Feed

and Food Law, Animal Health and Animal Welfare

Rules.

[5] Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 Laying down Specific

Hygiene Rules for Food of Animal Origin.

[6] Regulation (EU) No. 182/2011 of the European

Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011,

Laying down the Rules and General Principles

Concerning Mechanisms for Control by Member States

of the Commission’s Exercise of Implementing Powers.

[7] Belloli, A. 2006. “The Local Health Authority.” In Guide

to the Practice of Veterinary Medicine for Official

All Rights Reserved.

64The Animal Health Law-Regulation EU 2016/429 and the Future of

Food Safety and Free Commerce in Europe

CGEMS, 36-50. (in Italian)

[10] Pezza, F., and Ruffo, G. 2006. “Role and Function of

Veterinarian in the Area of Animal Health.” In Guide to

the Practice of Veterinary Medicine for Official

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CGEMS, 157-223. (in Italian)

[11] Pezza, F., Ruffo, G., and Fossati, P. 2008. Veterinary

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Veterinarian and Veterinary Practitioner. Turin, Italy:

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[8] Marabelli, R. 2006. “The International Veterinary

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[9] Marabelli, R. 2006. “The Italian Ministry of Health.” In

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