Article 23 Derogations from disease control measures in the event of suspicion of certain diseases
United Kingdom
By way of derogation from Article 21(1), based on duly justified grounds, the competent authority may decide not to suspend the disease-free status of the whole establishment when there are different epidemiological units as referred to in Article 20(4).
By way of derogation from point (a) of Article 21(2), the competent authority may authorise movement of animals from the relevant targeted animal population to an establishment under its official supervision provided that the following requirements are complied with:
the animals shall only be moved by direct transport;
in the establishment of destination, the animals shall be kept in closed facilities, with no contact with kept animals of a higher health status or with wild animals of listed species for the relevant disease.
By way of derogation from point (a) of Article 21(2), in the case of a category C disease, the competent authority may authorise movement of animals from the relevant targeted animal population provided that they are moved, if necessary by direct transport, to an establishment located in an area that is neither disease-free nor covered by an optional eradication programme.
When making use of the derogation laid down in paragraph 2, the competent authority shall:
suspend the disease-free status of the establishment of destination of the animals that are subject to the derogations, until the end of the investigations referred to in Article 21(1);
prohibit, until the end of the investigations referred to in Article 21(1), the movement of animals from that establishment, unless it has authorised their direct transport to a designated slaughterhouse for immediate slaughter;
in case of suspicion of infection with Brucella abortus, B. melitensis and B. suis or with MTBC, maintain the prohibition laid down in point (b) after the end of the investigation until all the animals that moved in the establishment following the derogation laid down in paragraph 2 have been slaughtered.
The competent authority may use the derogations provided for in paragraphs 1 to 3 only if operators of establishments of origin and of destination and transporters of the animals that are subject to the derogations:
apply appropriate biosecurity and other risk mitigating measures necessary to prevent the spread of the disease; and
provide the competent authority with guarantees that all the necessary biosecurity and other risk mitigating measures have been taken.