Commission Implementing Decision of 9 October 2014 concerning animal health control measures relating to African swine fever in certain Member States and repealing Implementing Decision 2014/178/EU (notified under document C(2014) 7222) (Text with EEA relevance) (2014/709/EU)Text with EEA relevance

This Decision lays down animal health control measures in relation to African swine fever in the Member States or areas thereof as set out in the Annex (the Member States concerned), and in all Member States as regards movements of feral pigs and information obligations.

It shall apply without prejudice to the plans for the eradication of African swine fever from feral pig populations in the Member State concerned, approved by the Commission in accordance with Article 16 of Directive 2002/60/EC.

The Member States concerned shall prohibit:

1. the dispatch of live pigs from the areas listed in Parts II, III and IV of the Annex;

2. the dispatch of consignments of porcine semen, ova and embryos from the areas listed in Parts III and IV of the Annex;

3. the dispatch of consignments of pig meat, pig meat preparations, pig meat products and any other products containing such meat from the areas listed in Parts III and IV of the Annex;

4. the dispatch of consignments of animal by-products from porcine animals from the areas listed in Parts III and IV of the Annex.

By way of derogation from the prohibition provided for in point (a) of Article 2, the Member States concerned may authorise the dispatch of live pigs from a holding located in the areas listed in Part II of the Annex to other areas in the territory of the same Member State or to areas listed in Part II or III of the Annex of another Member State provided that:

1. the pigs have been resident for a period of at least 30 days, or since birth, on the holding and no live pigs have been introduced from the areas listed in Parts II, III and IV of the Annex during a period of at least 30 days prior to the date of the movement into:

   1. that holding; or

   2. the production unit where the pigs to be dispatched under this Article are kept; the production unit may only be defined by the competent authority provided that the official veterinarian confirms that the structure, size and distance between the production units and the operations carried out there are such that the production units provide completely separate facilities for housing, keeping and feeding, so that the virus cannot spread from one production unit to another, and

2. the pigs have been subjected to a pathogen identification test for African swine fever, carried out with negative results on samples taken in accordance with the sampling procedures as laid down in the plan for the eradication of African swine fever referred to in the second paragraph of Article 1 of this Decision within a period of 7 days prior to the date of the movement and a clinical examination for African swine fever has been carried out on each consignment of pigs by an official veterinarian in accordance with the checking and sampling procedures laid down in Part A of Chapter IV of the Annex to Commission Decision 2003/422/EC⁽¹⁾ within the 24-hour period prior to the movement of the pigs, or

3. the pigs come from a holding:

   1. that has been subjected at least twice a year, with an interval of at least 4 months, to inspections by the competent veterinary authority, which:

      1. followed the guidelines and procedures laid down in Chapter IV of the Annex to Decision 2003/422/EC;

      2. included a clinical examination of the pigs in the holding in accordance with the checking and sampling procedures laid down in Part A of Chapter IV of the Annex to Decision 2003/422/EC;

      3. checked the effective application of the measures provided for in the second indent and in the fourth to seventh indents of Article 15(2)(b) of Directive 2002/60/EC;

   2. that implements bio-security requirements for African swine fever as established by the competent authority and ensures that at least the first two dead pigs over the age of 60 days in each production unit each week have been subjected to a pathogen identification test for African swine fever that complies with the general procedures and criteria for the collection and transport of samples laid down in Chapter V of the Annex to Decision 2003/422/EC,

4. for live pigs dispatched to areas listed in Part II or III of the Annex of another Member State, the following additional requirements shall apply:

   1. the pigs comply with any other appropriate animal health guarantees based on a positive outcome of a risk assessment of measures against the spread of African swine fever required by the competent authority of the Member State of the place of origin, and approved by the competent authorities of the Member States of the places of transit and of destination, prior to the movement of the pigs; however, the approval by the competent authorities of the Member States of the places of transit and of destination shall not be required when the places of origin, transit and destination of the pigs are all listed areas in the Annex and are continuous, thereby ensuring that the pigs are only moved through areas listed in the Annex.

   2. the Member State of the place of origin immediately informs the Commission and the other Member States of the animal health guarantees and of the approval by the competent authorities referred to in the point (a), and authorises a list of holdings that comply with those animal health guarantees; however, that information from the Member State of origin shall not be required when the places of origin, transit and destination of the pigs are all listed areas in the Annex and are continuous, thereby ensuring that the pigs are only moved through areas that are listed in the Annex.

   3. a channelling procedure in accordance with Article 16a is set up, under the control of the competent authorities of the Member States of origin, transit and destination, in order to ensure that the animals, moved in accordance with the additional requirements provided for in point (a) are transported in a safe manner and are not subsequently moved to another Member State.

   4. For live pigs that comply with the additional requirements of point 4 of this Article, the following additional wording shall be added to the corresponding health certificate for swine referred to in Article 5(1) of Directive 64/432/EEC:

      ‘Pigs in compliance with Article 3 of Commission Implementing Decision 2014/709/EU.’