Pig "point-to-point" transfer Halfway sales and exchange will be punished

The Guangdong Provincial Animal Epidemic Prevention Regulations will come into effect on March 1 next year

On December 28, the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress held a press conference to introduce the revised Guangdong Provincial Animal Epidemic Prevention Regulations (the "Regulations"). The "Regulations" systematically regulate the designated channels for animals entering the province, the management of animals entering the province, and the transfer and transportation of live pigs, which clearly stipulates that pigs that have passed quarantine shall be directly transported to the destination indicated by the animal quarantine certificate. Pigs may not be sold, exchanged or transferred without a legitimate reason during transportation. The revised Animal Epidemic Prevention Regulations of Guangdong Province will come into force on 1 March 2022. ■ New Express reporter Huang Wenyu

Strengthen capacity building for the prevention and control of zoonotic infectious diseases

Huang Weizhong, vice chairman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Provincial People's Congress, said that in recent years, African swine fever and other fierce animal infectious diseases have colonized in China, coupled with the increasingly prominent public health security risks represented by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the internal conditions and external environment facing animal epidemic prevention work have undergone profound changes. The revision of the Regulations aims to solidify the institutional measures that have been effective in practice in recent years into laws and regulations, so as to better adapt to the new situation and new tasks of animal epidemic prevention.

The Regulations further improve the epidemic prevention supervision system, clarify the requirements for animal health supervision agencies and animal disease prevention and control agencies to perform their duties, give township people's governments, subdistrict offices and village (neighborhood) committees and other grass-roots forces the function of participating in animal epidemic prevention work, implement the contract veterinary employment system, and promote the development of animal epidemic prevention socialization services.

The Regulations clarify the obligation of self-inspection of animal diseases. According to the actual conditions of Guangdong Province, it is stipulated that animal breeding farms, breeding communities, livestock and poultry designated slaughtering or centralized slaughtering enterprises in the province shall carry out animal disease testing on their own or entrust qualified institutions in accordance with the law, and regularly report the testing situation to the local animal disease prevention and control institutions. At the same time, it also stipulates the obligation to fulfill the annual report on animal epidemic prevention.

It is worth noting that the "Regulations" have strengthened the construction of capacity for the prevention and control of zoonotic infectious diseases. It is stipulated to establish and improve a cooperative mechanism for the prevention and control of zoonotic infectious diseases, and to include the prevention and control of zoonotic infectious diseases in wild animals and animals entering and leaving the country into the joint prevention and control mechanism for zoonotic infectious diseases.

In order to improve the quality and safety of meat, the Regulations stipulate that Guangdong Province implements a fixed-point slaughtering system for pigs, implements a fixed-point slaughtering or centralized slaughtering system for cattle and sheep, implements a centralized slaughtering system for live poultry in areas where live poultry operation is restricted, and clarifies that livestock and poultry slaughtered at designated points or slaughtered in a centralized manner shall be quarantined centrally.

Basically realize the supervision of the whole process of pig transfer and transportation from outside the province into Guangdong

The management of animal transportation is directly related to whether the separation wall between provinces and different regions of animal diseases is worthy of the name, and it is the top priority to prevent the import and export of animal diseases. The "Regulations" added a "special chapter on the management of animal transportation", which specifically standardized its management, and systematically standardized the designated channels for animals entering the province, the management of animals entering the province, the transfer of live pigs, and the investigation and handling of animals during transportation.

Specifically, animals imported into this province or transiting through this province by road, as well as animals and animal products imported into disease-free areas, shall be inspected by designated channel inspection stations; if animals are imported by railway, aviation, shipping or other modes of transportation, the cargo owner or carrier shall provide relevant transportation vouchers for inspection. Pigs that have passed quarantine shall be directly transported to the destination indicated in the animal quarantine certificate. Breeding pigs and piglets shall be directly transported to the breeding site for breeding or fattening, and meat pigs shall be directly transported to designated slaughtering enterprises for slaughter. Pigs may not be sold, exchanged or transshipped without a legitimate reason during transportation.

Where pigs are sold, exchanged or transferred without a legitimate reason during transportation, the competent agricultural and rural departments of the people's governments at or above the county level shall impose a fine of not more than 50% of the value of the pigs on the cargo owner; and a fine of not less than one time but not more than three times the transportation cost shall be imposed on carriers other than the cargo owner.

The reporter learned from the press conference that since September 2019, Guangdong Province has implemented a designated channel management system for animals and animal products into Guangdong. Up to now, 27 designated crossing checkpoints have inspected pigs and pig product transport vehicles 211,000 times, investigated and dealt with more than 100 violations of laws and regulations, realized the advance of the epidemic prevention pass, and basically realized the whole process of supervision of pigs from outside the province entering Guangdong through the inspection of designated crossings outside the province, the filing management of pig brokers and transport vehicles, the installation of satellite positioning devices, and the "point-to-point" transfer of pigs from outside the province.