Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1979 > Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities > Report No. 46 - Prevention of Classical Swine Fever

REPORT

Introduction

1. The Joint Committee has considered the Commission’s proposal for a Council Regulation introducing Community measures for the prevention of classical swine fever (4098/79). The Committee understands that the Commission intends that the proposed Regulation together with another draft Regulation which it expects to submit to the Council soon will form the basis for a Community plan for the eradication of swine fever. On the adoption of the new Regulations certain derogations granted to this country (and to Denmark and the U.K.) initially up to December, 1977 by the Accession Treaty (Article 104.1) and subsequently extended up to 30th June, 1979 by successive Council Decisions (78/54/EEC of 19th December, 1977 and 79/111/EEC of 24th January, 1979) would end. (A Commission proposal to extend the derogations to the end of 1979 has been made to the Council). These derogations were granted in recognition of the fact that the three new Member Countries had each been free from swine fever for very many years, did not practise vaccination against it and were committed to a slaughter policy in the event of an outbreak on their territories.

Nature of Disease

2. Classical swine fever is seriously contagious, in its acute form has a high mortality level and in other forms leads to abortions, sterility and reduced growth rates. The methods of dealing with the disease vary considerably between the Member States and the Commission’s proposal is based on the proposition that harmonisation of these methods is necessary to remove a barrier to intra-Community trade.

3. Ireland has been free of the disease since 1958 and the fact that vaccination against it does not operate here makes the national herd extremely vulnerable to the risk of the disease being introduced from abroad should the right to maintain our national rules regarding the importation of pigs and pigmeat be withdrawn before a properly effective swine fever control and eradication scheme has been adopted and is in operation in those Member States where the disease is endemic.

Outline of Commission’s Proposals

4. The proposed Regulation specifies in some detail the action to be taken by the competent authority in each Member State in relation to (a) a holding on which the disease is suspected or diagnosed, (b) a holding from which the disease may have originated, (c) the slaughter of pigs on affected holdings and the circumstances in which the slaughtering may be postponed or not proceeded with, (d) the conduct of an epizootiological enquiry, (e) the establishment of a protection area around infected holding and the control of movement of pigs therein, (f) the adoption of co-ordinated standards and methods of diagnosis, (g) vaccination and (h) control of use of swill.

Derogations

5. While the Commission’s proposals are ostensibly directed towards the laudible objective of preventing swine fever the draft Regulation contains several provisions which provide for relaxations in the proposed preventive and control measures and thereby make them less stringent than they would at first appear to be. Member States would be allowed by way of derogation from the basic provisions to permit—

(a)the postponement of the compulsory slaughter of certain pigs and the destruction of carcases on an infected holding so that the fattening of pigs may be completed,

(b)the movement of pigs from a suspected holding to a slaughterhouse,

(c)the relaxation of control measures on suspected and infected holdings,

(d)the movement within a protective zone or outside of that zone of piglets for fattening from a holding within a protective zone, and

(e)the movement of (i) fattening pigs and (ii) breeding pigs out of a protective zone.

Particular Provisions

6. Insofar as the detailed provisions of the proposed Regulation are concerned the following are regarded by the Joint Committee as objectionable from the Irish point of view:—

(i)The “15 days delay period” referred to in the seventh indent of Article 5, in the eighth indent of Article 6 and subparagraph 2(b) and paragraph 3 of Article 9 is too short a period to ensure that contamination is eliminated;

(ii)There is a lack of definition or clarity as to the standards on interpretation to be applied when implementing the Regulation with regard to (a) “pig unit” and “housed, kept and fed separately” and (b) “housed in buildings or blocks apart etc.” referred to, respectively, in the first and second indents of Article 9;

(iii)The provision in Article 13 which would require the marking of all pigs when they are moved from the holdings on which they are kept is unnecessary in a state like Ireland which is free from swine fever. It is appreciated that some continental Member States in which outbreaks of the disease occur or which practise a vaccination policy mark their pigs. However, for Ireland the marking of all pigs before movement would impose unnecessary additional tasks and costs on pig producers and also on the Department of Agriculture which would be obliged to undertake and enforce controls, unnecessary here, which would be difficult to justify on animal health grounds;

(iv)The provision in Article 14 for the use at the discretion of a Member State, of vaccination as a prophylactic and supplementary measure to control swine fever when St is detected on a holding can hardly be accepted by Member States like Ireland which are free from the disease and which do not practise vaccination or permit vaccinates on their territories. The fact that vaccination, even on a discretionary basis, is provided for, would seem difficult to reconcile with the intention declared by the Commission in June, 1976 “to completely eradicate swine fever and to do away with vaccination”;

(v)The provisions for swill in Article 15 are of a very wide and elaborate nature and if they were to be adopted the feasibility and practicability of enforcing them is open to question. To comply with the provisions an elaborate and costly licensing and inspection system would be required to enforce controls on the collection, transport, treatment, storage and use of the swill, including restrictions on its feeding to fattening pigs only which would be very difficult to police;

(vi)While Article 5 provides that in cases where the presence of swine fever is officially confirmed, the competent authority shall prescribe that all pigs on the holding shall be compulsorily slaughtered, no provision is made for the payment of compensation to the owner in respect of pigs slaughtered or carcases destroyed nor for financial support by the Community. This is a serious omission. Our Diseases of Animals Act, 1966 provides for mandatory compensation to be paid, when animals infected with a Class A disease, such as swine fever, are compulsorily slaughtered, and

(vii)No financial provisions are made in respect of financial assistance to Member States in connection with the eradication or prevention of swine fever.

Effect on Irish Legislation

7. If adopted, the Regulation would supercede the provisions of the following statutory instruments insofar as they are inconsistent with it:—

Swine Fever (Ireland) Order, 1900,

Swine Fever (Ireland) Order, 1901,

Foot and Mouth Disease and Swine Fever (Boiling of Animal Foodstuffs) Order, 1933, and

Foot and Mouth Disease (Disposal of Swill) Order, 1937.

8. The Joint Committee is informed that the effects, if any, which the Regulation might have on the provisions of the Diseases of Animals Act, 1966, which constitutes the main Irish Legislative code for the prevention, control and eradication of animal diseases is being examined.

Veterinary Research Laboratory

9. The Joint Committee is advised that the carrying out of the tests envisaged by the proposed Regulation would necessitate a high security laboratory facility being added to the Veterinary Research Laboratory at Abbotstown, Castleknock, Co. Dublin, as existing facilities there are not sufficient to enable all the tests to be carried out.

Conclusions of the Joint Committee

10. In its report (R. 1668/76) to the Council in June, 1976 the Commission indicated that it would initiate action “to completely eradicate swine fever and do away with vaccination” and that there would also be “initiatives aiming at eradication of certain contagious animal diseases, financially supported by the Community”. In the Joint Committee’s view, further consideration of the proposed Regulation should be deferred until there has been an opportunity of examining whatever proposals the Commission has for honouring these undertakings. The draft Regulation, in any event, does not, in the Committee’s opinion, provide a disease free country like Ireland with adequate protection in the context of the free movement of goods. Moreover, the system which it envisages would be far too costly to operate without substantial financial assistance from Community funds. Until such time as there is in operation a comprehensive and effective Community scheme for the control and eradication of swine fever the Committee considers that there is no alternative to continuing the existing national measures.

Vice-Chairman of the Joint Committee.

30th May, 1979.