Volume 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health
2. Identification and control of animals showing symptoms of disease
Notification of disease

2.13 Once a new disease was recognised, the Minister could make an Order under section 15 requiring the separation and notification of any animal affected by that particular disease. This became the responsibility of anyone possessing such an animal or having charge of it, thus including both the farmer and the private vet, as well as anyone transporting or selling the animal on behalf of the owner. Failure to separate and notify was an offence. An Order made under this section of the Act usually required that the Divisional Veterinary Officer of MAFF be notified. ¹ It was also usual for an Order to require that an affected animal was detained where it was, whether alive or as a carcass, until a veterinary inspector had examined it. This power was used for BSE when it was made notifiable in 1988. ² Although, at that time and before, the EC could require notification of animal diseases in the Member States by Directive 82/894/EEC, that power was not used in making BSE notifiable.

2.14 Notifiable diseases were monitored as part of an international effort to establish their extent and spread so as to assist in the control and eradication of animal diseases. Mr William Rees, formerly Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO), ³ explained the criteria used by MAFF and relevant international organisations, such as the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), when deciding whether an animal disease should be made notifiable:

First, there should be a sufficient number of cases with the disease so that the relevant experience has accumulated in identifying the cases in the field. Farmers as well as private veterinary surgeons should be able to recognise the clinical signs of the disease. This is particularly important if there is no test to detect the disease in the live animal, in which case the veterinary surgeon must rely, in his diagnosis, on the clinical signs in the animal. Secondly, consideration must be given to whether the notification policy will actually achieve the objectives of both identifying all cases with the disease and ascertaining the number of cases with the disease. ⁴