Article 6 Follow-up of illegal treatments and the possession of prohibited or unauthorised substances or products

Where substances within the scope of Directive 96/22/EC, prohibited or unauthorised substances or products are discovered in the possession of non-authorised persons, thereby creating a suspicion of illegal treatment, those substances or products shall be placed under official detention until the measures provided for under paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article are taken by the competent authority, without prejudice to the subsequent destruction of the products and the possible imposition of penalties on the offender(s).

Where illegal treatment is established or where substances falling under the scope of Directive 96/22/EC, prohibited or unauthorised substances or products are discovered in the possession of non-authorised operators or persons, the competent authority shall:

• place or keep the livestock and the carcases, meat, offal and by-products of the animals concerned by the illegal treatment together with the milk, eggs and honey from those animals under official detention as provided for in Article 4(4)(b);

• take samples from all relevant batches of animals belonging to the farm.

• order the operator to kill the animal or animals for which illegal treatment has been established, and to dispose them as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009;

• declare all carcases or products concerned by the illegal treatment unfit for human consumption and order the operator to dispose of them as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009;

For the purposes of paragraph 2:

• all animals of the batch or batches from which one or more animals were confirmed to have been subject to an illegal treatment with prohibited or unauthorised substances shall be considered to have been also subject to an illegal treatment, unless the competent authority, at the request and at the expense of the operator, agrees to perform additional official controls on all animals of the relevant batch or batches to ascertain that no illegal treatment took place in relation to those animals.

• all animals of the batch or batches from which one or more animals were confirmed to have been subject to an illegal treatment due to the use in food producing animals of substances or veterinary medicinal products authorised under F1... legislation for purposes or under conditions other than those laid down in that legislation or, where appropriate, in national legislation, shall be considered to have been also subject to an illegal treatment, unless the competent authority, at the request and at the expense of the operator, agrees to perform additional official controls on the animals of the relevant batch or batches, which are suspected to have been illegally treated, to ascertain that no illegal treatment took place in relation to those animals.

In the case of established illegal treatment in aquaculture, samples from all relevant ponds, pens and cages shall be taken. In case the illegal treatment in aquaculture is established, if the sample taken from a specific pond, pen or cage is non-compliant, all the animals in that pond, pen or cage shall be considered to have been subject to illegal treatment.

The competent authority shall perform regular additional official controls for a period of at least 12 months from the date upon which the non-compliance was ascertained on the farm or farms under the responsibility of the same operator and on the animals and goods belonging to the farm or farms in question.

The farms or establishments, supplying the holding concerned by the non-compliance, as well as all farms in the same supply chain of animals and animal feed as the farm of origin or departure may be subject to official controls to determine the origin of the substance in question:

• during the transport, distribution and sale or acquisition of pharmacologically active substances;

• at any point in the animal feed production and distribution chain;

• throughout the production chain of animals and products of animal origin

If the operator fails to take all necessary measures to comply with the orders of the competent authority in accordance with this Article, the competent authority shall take measures having the same effect, at the expense of the operator.