Animal Health Act 1981

The Animal Health Act 1981 is a piece of UK legislation that provides powers for the control of outbreaks of avian influenza and Newcastle disease.[1] These powers were extended by a statutory instrument.[2] It was amended by the Animal Health and Welfare Act 1984. It was amended in 2002 to provide more powers to deal with foot and mouth disease, a problem that in 2001 bedevilled herds during the Blair ministry.[3][4]

Animal Health Act 1981
Citation22
Territorial extentUnited Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent11 June 1981
Other legislation
Amended byAnimal Health (Amendment) Act 1998
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Act provides for:[3]

  • slaughter of diseased poultry, poultry suspected of disease, poultry exposed to disease and poultry which the government thinks should be slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease
  • payment of compensation for birds that are slaughtered but are not diseased.
  • publication of a slaughter protocol prior to exercising the power to impose a preventive or firebreak cull. Emergency vaccination would have to be considered prior to any cull, and, if not used, the reasons would have to be published.
  • powers for veterinary inspectors to enter premises to ascertain whether disease anti-bodies exist, whether any animal is or was infected with disease and whether any causative agent of disease is present
  • publication of biosecurity guidance
  • preparation and review of a national contingency plan

References
  1. Jukes, D. J. (2013-09-11). Food Legislation of the UK: A Concise Guide. ISBN 9781483182636.
  2. the Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease (England and Wales) Order 2003
  3. "Disease factsheet: Newcastle disease". DEFRA. 30 April 2007. Archived from the original on 10 June 2007. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v1.0. © Crown copyright.
  4. Boden, Edward; Andrews, Anthony (2015-03-26). Black's Veterinary Dictionary. ISBN 9781408149553.
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