S.L. 437.60 Art. 4Rules for inspection of equidae.

(1) Equidae must show no clinical sign of disease at inspection. Inspection must be carried out in the forty-eight hours prior to their embarkation or loading. In the case of registered equidae, however, this inspection shall, without prejudice to regulation 6, be required for intra-Community trade only.

(2) Without prejudice to the requirements of sub-rule (5) regarding compulsorily notifiable diseases, the official veterinarian must, at the time of inspection, be satisfied that there are no grounds in particular on the basis of declarations by the owner or breeder for concluding that the equidae have been in contact with equidae suffering from an infectious or contagious disease during the fifteen days immediately preceding inspection.

(3) The equidae must not be intended for slaughter under a national programme of contagious or infectious disease eradication.

(4) The equidae must be identified in the following manner:

(i) in the case of registered horses, by means of an identification document, as provided for in Directive 90/427/EEC, which must certify in particular that Article 5 (5) and (6) have been complied with. The official veterinarian will have to suspend the validity of this document for the period of the prohibitions provided for in Article 5(5). The document should, following the slaughter of the registered horse, be returned to the authority which issued it;

(ii) for equidae for breeding and production, identification by a method to be established by the Commission in accordance with the relevant procedure of the Community. Until such time as this method is in use, the officially approved national identification methods shall remain applicable, provided that they are notified by the competent authority to the Commission and the other Member States within three months of the date on which these rules are adopted.

(5) In addition to the requirements laid down in rule 5, the equidae must not come from a holding which has been the subject of one of the following prohibition orders -

(i) if all the animals of species susceptible to the disease located on the holding have not been slaughtered, the period of prohibition concerning the holding of origin must be at least -

(a) six months in the case of equidae suspected of having contracted dourine, beginning on the date of the last actual or possible contact with a sick animal. However, in the case of a stallion, the prohibition shall apply until the animal is castrated,

(b) six months in the case of glanders or equine encephalomyelitis, beginning on the day on which the equidae suffering from the disease in question are slaughtered,

(c) in the case of infectious anaemia, until the date on which, the infected animals having been slaughtered, the remaining animals have shown a negative reaction to two Coggins tests carried out three months apart,

(d) six months in the case of vesicular stomatitis,

(e) one month from the last recorded case, in the case of rabies,

(f) fifteen days from the last recorded case, in the case of anthrax;

(ii) if all the animals of species susceptible to the disease located on the holding have been slaughtered and the premises disinfected, the period of prohibition shall be thirty days, beginning on the day on which the animals were destroyed and the premises disinfected, except in the case of anthrax, where the period of prohibition is fifteen days. The competent authority may derogate from these prohibition measures for hippodromes and racecourses, and shall notify the Commission of the nature of any derogation granted.

(6) Where the competent authority draws up or has drawn up a voluntary or compulsory control programme for a disease to which equidae are susceptible, it may present the programme to the Commission outlining in particular –

(a) the distribution of the disease on its territory;

(b) the reasons for the programme, taking into consideration the significance of the disease and its cost/benefit advantages;

(c) the geographical area in which the programme will be implemented;

(d) the status categories to be applied to establishments, the standards which must be attained for each species and the test procedures to be used, the programme monitoring procedures;

(e) the action to be taken if, for any reason, a holding loses its status;

(f) the measures to be taken if the results of the tests carried out in accordance with the provisions of the programme are positive;

(g) the non-discriminatory nature of trade in Malta with respect to intra-Community trade. The programmes presented by the competent authority shall be examined by the Commission. Where appropriate it shall approve them in accordance with the relevant procedure of the Community. Any additional guarantees, general or specific, which may be required in intra-Community trade may be defined in accordance with the same procedure. Such guarantees must not exceed those required by Malta in its own territory. Programmes submitted by competent authority may be amended or supplemented in accordance with the same procedure.