Originally from: mona parr
                        
ANIMAL HEALTH ACT COMES INTO FORCE IN JANUARY

Most elements of the Animal Health Act (2002) are to come into force on January 14. An order for the commencement of the Act was signed by Animal Health and Welfare Minister Elliot Morley this week.
The legislation, which received Royal Assent on November 7, gives the Government increased ability to deal swiftly with outbreaks of animal disease by new powers of entry to farms for vaccination, serology or slaughter. It also provides additional powers to cull animals to prevent the spread of disease in the event of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease. Slaughter, enforcement and the scrapie powers linked to the Act are due to come into force at this time.
Some other aspects of the Act will come into force later next year. A new provision which requires the annual publication of the National Contingency Plan will come into force on March 24, and the provisions concerning publication of biosecurity guidance will take effect on July 1.
The latest version of the Contingency plan was placed on the Defra website on November. Since then, a number of comments have been received from interested parties and these are being taken into account as part of the revision of the plan.
Defra intends to update the Plan after the contingency exercises that are currently being held in the Department. These lessons cannot be incorporated before mid-March.
Similarly, the date for introducing biosecurity guidance provision is so as to allow time for the consultation and publication of the guidance.

Notes for editors

1. The Animal Health Act 2002 amends the Animal Health Act 1981 to provide additional powers to tackle foot and mouth disease, other diseases and scrapie in sheep.
2. The commencement Order to the Animal Health Act 2002 was made this week. Sections 1 to 15, section 17, sections 19 to 22 and the Schedule to the Act come into force on January 14, 2003. Section 16 of the Act (biosecurity guidance) will come into force on July 1, 2003 and Section 18 of the Act (contingency plans) on March 24, 2003.
3. The Government's updated contingency plan for FMD can be found on the Defra website at <A HREF="http://www.defra.gov.uk/footandmouth/contingency/contingency.htm">www.defra.gov.uk/footandmouth/contingency/contingency.htm</A> 4 The National Scrapie Plan is part of the Action Plan for Farming and aims to reduce and eventually eradicate scrapie from the national sheep flock. At present, it is a voluntary scheme and owners who enter will have their sheep genotyped to establish if they are genetically resistant to scrapie. The plan was launched on July 19, 2001.
5. The Act extends to England and Wales.