satisfy the conditions as regards facilities and operation set out in Chapter II;
apply and adhere to a disease surveillance programme approved by the competent central veterinary authority, taking into account the requirements of Chapter III;
provide every facility for the carrying out of the operations listed in point (d);
be subject to the supervision of the competent veterinary authority within the context of an organised form of animal health monitoring. Such monitoring shall include in particular:
at least one inspection visit per year by the official veterinarian, supplemented by checks to verify the application of hygiene measures and the operation of the establishment in accordance with the conditions in Chapter II,
the recording by the farmer of all the information necessary for the continuous monitoring of the health status of the establishment by the competent veterinary authority,
contain only poultry.
Pedigree breeding, breeding and rearing establishmentsU.K.
The setting and layout of the facilities must be compatible with the type of production pursued, ensuring that the introduction of disease can be prevented or, if an outbreak occurs, that it can be controlled. If an establishment houses several species of poultry, there must be a clear separation between them.
The facilities must provide good conditions of hygiene and allow health monitoring to be carried out.
The equipment must be compatible with the type of production pursued, and allow cleansing and disinfection of the facilities and of vehicles for transporting poultry and eggs at the most suitable spot.
Rearing techniques must be based as far as possible on the ‘protected rearing’ principle and on the ‘all-in/all-out’ principle. Cleansing, disinfection and depopulation must be carried out between batches.
Pedigree-breeding, breeding and rearing establishments must house only poultry:
from the establishment itself, and/or,
from other pedigree-breeding, breeding or rearing establishments in the Community approved in accordance with Article 6(a)(i), and/or,
imported from third countries in accordance with this Directive,
Hygiene rules must be drawn up by the management of the establishment; personnel must wear appropriate working clothing and visitors protective clothing.
Buildings, pens and equipment must be kept in good repair.
[F1Eggs must be:
collected at frequent intervals, at least daily and as soon as possible after laying;
cleaned and disinfected as soon as possible, unless disinfection takes place at a hatchery in the same Member State;
placed either in new or in clean and disinfected packaging material.]
The farmer must notify the authorised veterinarian of any variation in production performance or any other sign suggesting the presence of a contagious poultry disease. As soon as disease is suspected, the authorised veterinarian must send the samples needed for making or confirming the diagnosis to an approved laboratory.
A flock history, register or data medium must be kept for each flock for at least two years after the disposal of the flock and must show:
arrivals and departures,
production performance,
morbidity and mortality with causes,
any laboratory tests and the results thereof,
the place of origin of the poultry,
the destination of eggs,
Where a contagious poultry disease occurs, the results of laboratory tests must be communicated immediately to the authorised veterinarian.
Textual Amendments
F1 Substituted by Commission Decision of 1 April 2011 amending Annexes II to IV to Council Directive 2009/158/EC on animal health conditions governing intra-Community trade in, and imports from third countries of, poultry and hatching eggs (notified under document C(2011) 2068) (Text with EEA relevance) (2011/214/EU).
HatcheriesU.K.
A hatchery must be physically and operationally separate from rearing facilities. The layout must be such as to allow the various functional units listed below to be kept separate:
egg storage and grading,
disinfection,
pre-incubation,
hatching,
preparation and packaging of goods for dispatch,
Buildings must be protected against birds coming from outside and rodents; floors and walls must be of hard-wearing, impervious and washable materials; natural or artificial lighting and air flow and temperature systems must be of an appropriate type; provision must be made for the hygienic evacuation of waste (eggs and chicks).
Equipment must have smooth and waterproof surfaces.
Operation must be based on a one-way circuit for eggs, mobile equipment and personnel.
Hatching eggs must be:
from Community pedigree breeding or breeding establishments approved in accordance with Article 6(a)(i),
imported from third countries in accordance with this Directive,
Hygiene rules must be drawn up by the management of the establishment; personnel must wear appropriate working clothing and visitors protective clothing.
Buildings and equipment must be kept in good repair.
The following must be disinfected:
[F1eggs, between the time of their arrival at the hatchery and the incubation process or at the time of their dispatch for trade within the Union or export to a third country, unless they have been previously disinfected at the breeding establishment of origin,]
the incubators, regularly,
hatchers and equipment, after the hatching of each batch,
A programme of microbiological quality control must be used to assess the health status of the hatchery.
The farmer must notify the authorised veterinarian of any variation in production performance or any other sign suggesting the presence of a contagious poultry disease. As soon as contagious disease is suspected, the authorised veterinarian must send the samples needed for making or confirming the diagnosis to an approved laboratory and inform the competent veterinary authority, which shall decide on appropriate measures to be taken.
A flock history, register or data medium for the hatchery must be kept for at least two years showing, if possible by flock:
the origin of the eggs and their arrival date,
hatching yields,
any abnormalities,
any laboratory tests and the results thereof,
details of any vaccination programmes,
the number and the destination of incubated eggs which have not hatched,
the destination of day-old chicks,
Where a contagious poultry disease occurs, the results of laboratory tests must be communicated immediately to the authorised veterinarian.
Without prejudice to health measures and to Articles 16 and 17, disease surveillance programmes must, as a minimum, comprise surveillance of the infections and species listed in Sections A to D.
Salmonella Pullorum and Salmonella Gallinarum: fowls, turkeys, guinea fowls, quails, pheasants, partridges and ducks.
Salmonella arizonae : turkeys.
Serological and/or bacteriological tests must be used to determine whether an infection is present (4) .
Samples for testing must be taken, as appropriate, from blood, embryos that fail to hatch (namely embryos dead-in-shell), second grade chicks, meconium, post mortem tissues, especially liver, spleen, ovary/oviduct and ileo-caecal junction (5) .
Direct enrichment in Selenite-cysteine broth for faecal/meconium and intestinal samples is to be used. Non-selective pre-enrichment followed by selective enrichment in soya based Rappaport-Vassiliadis (RVS) broth or Müller-Kauffmann Tetrathionate-novobiocin broth (MKTTn) may be used for samples (such as embryos dead-in-shell) where competing flora is expected to be minimal (6) , (7) .
When blood samples are taken from a flock for serological testing for Salmonella Pullorum and Salmonella Gallinarum or Salmonella arizonae , the prevalence of infection in the Member State concerned and its past incidence in the establishment must be allowed for in determining the number of samples to be taken. However, a statistically valid number of samples for serological and/or bacteriological testing to detect infection must always be taken.
Flocks must be inspected during each laying period at the best time for detecting the disease in question.
Samples for bacteriological testing must not be taken from poultry or eggs that have been treated with antimicrobial medicinal products during the 2 to 3 weeks prior to testing.
Detection techniques must be capable of differentiating serological responses to Salmonella Pullorum and Salmonella Gallinarum infection from serological responses due to the use of Salmonella Enteritidis vaccine, where this vaccine is used (8) . Such vaccination must therefore not be used if serological monitoring is to be used. If vaccination has been used, bacteriological testing must be used, but the confirmation method used must be capable of differentiating live vaccinal strains from field strains.
Mycoplasma gallisepticum : fowls and turkeys.
Mycoplasma meleagridis : turkeys.
The presence of infection must be tested by validated serological and/or bacteriological and/or molecular tests. The presence of air sacculitis lesions in day-old chicks and turkey poults suggests that a Mycoplasma infection is present and must be investigated.
Samples for testing for the presence of Mycoplasma infection must be taken, as appropriate, from blood, day-old chicks and turkey poults, sperm, or swabs taken from the trachea, the choanae, cloaca or air sacs and in particular for the detection of Mycoplasma meleagridis samples must be taken from oviduct and penis of turkeys.
Tests for detecting Mycoplasma gallisepticum or Mycoplasma meleagridis must be performed on a representative sample in order to allow continuous surveillance of the infection during rearing and laying, namely just before the start of laying and every 3 months thereafter.
If there are no reactors, the test must be deemed to be negative. Otherwise, the flock must be deemed to be suspect and the measures set out in Chapter IV must be applied to it.
when the conditions laid down in Chapter II are no longer met;
until an investigation appropriate to the disease has been completed,
if:
an outbreak of avian influenza or Newcastle disease is suspected at the establishment,
the establishment has received poultry or hatching eggs from an establishment with a suspected or confirmed outbreak of avian influenza or Newcastle disease,
contact liable to transmit the infection has occurred between the establishment and the site of an outbreak of avian influenza or Newcastle disease;
until such time as new tests are performed, if the results of surveillance carried out in accordance with the conditions laid down in Chapters II and III for infection by Salmonella Pullorum, Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella arizonae , Mycoplasma gallisepticum or Mycoplasma meleagridis give cause to suspect an outbreak;
until completion of the appropriate measures required by the official veterinarian, if the establishment is found not to conform with the requirements of point 1(a), (b) and (c) of Chapter I.
an outbreak of avian influenza or Newcastle disease is confirmed on the establishment;
a second test of an appropriate type confirms an outbreak of infection by Salmonella Pullorum, Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella arizonae , Mycoplasma gallisepticum or Mycoplasma meleagridis ;
after a second notice served by the official veterinarian on the person responsible for the establishment, action to bring the establishment into line with the requirements of point 1(a), (b) and (c) of Chapter I, has not been taken.
approval has been withdrawn because of an outbreak of avian influenza or Newcastle disease, it may be restored 21 days after cleansing and disinfection if sanitary slaughter has been carried out;
approval has been withdrawn because of an outbreak caused by:
Salmonella Pullorum and Salmonella Gallinarum, or Salmonella arizonae , it may be restored after negative results have been recorded in two tests performed with an interval of at least 21 days on the establishment following sanitary slaughter of the infected flock and after disinfection for which the effectiveness has been verified by suitable tests on dried surfaces,
Mycoplasma gallisepticum or Mycoplasma meleagridis , it may be restored either after negative results have been recorded in two tests performed on the entire flock with an interval of at least 60 days or after negative results have been recorded in two tests performed with an interval of at least 21 days on the establishment after disinfection following sanitary slaughter of the entire infected flock.]
[F1Salmonella Pullorum means Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Gallinarum biochemical variant (biovar) Pullorum.]
[F1Salmonella Gallinarum means Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Gallinarum biochemical variant (biovar) Gallinarum.]
[F1Salmonella arizonae means Salmonella enterica subspecies arizonae serogroup K (O18) arizonae.]
[F1Note that serological testing in avian species other than fowls may sometimes result in an unacceptable proportion of false-positive reactions.]
[F1 [Note that environmental samples are generally not suitable for reliable detection of Salmonella pullorum and Salmonella gallinarum , but are suitable for Salmonella arizonae.] ]
[F1Note that direct plating of aseptically collected tissues on to a minimally selective agar, such as MacConkey agar, is also useful for diagnosis.]
[F1 [Salmonella pullorum and Salmonella gallinarum do not readily grow in the modified semi-solid Rappaport Vassiliadis (MSRV) medium that is used for monitoring of zoonotic Salmonella spp. in the Union, but it is suitable for Salmonella arizonae.] ]
[F1Note that there is currently no test that can differentiate between the response to Salmonella Pullorum and Salmonella Gallinarum infection and vaccination for this serotype.]
Textual Amendments
F1 Substituted by Commission Decision of 1 April 2011 amending Annexes II to IV to Council Directive 2009/158/EC on animal health conditions governing intra-Community trade in, and imports from third countries of, poultry and hatching eggs (notified under document C(2011) 2068) (Text with EEA relevance) (2011/214/EU).