EU proposes tighter rules to stop disease

THE European Commission said yesterday it would soon propose much tighter rules governing animal movement, welfare and identification to clamp down on the possible spread of diseases such as foot-and-mouth.

Major revisions of rules for staging points where animals rest in transit, individual ear-tags for sheep, and reductions in travelling time for live animals are expected to form the key elements of draft legislation due to be tabled next month.

Many of the areas which the commission is keen to revise would appear in proposals to revise current foot-and-mouth laws, which would then be discussed by the EU’s 15 member states, Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne said.

“There is a lot of work remaining to be done. The commission proposal for a new directive on foot-and-mouth disease is currently in translation. It is a blockbuster proposal which runs to over 130 pages,” Byrne told members of the European Parliament’s temporary committee on foot-and-mouth.