ANIMAL HEALTH ACT

Arrangement of Sections

   Section

PART I
PRELIMINARY

   1.   Short title

   2.   Interpretation

PART II
ADMINISTRATION

   3.   Appointment of Director and other staff

   4.   Functions of Department

   5.   Powers of officer

   6.   Power of veterinary officers

   7.   Power to carry out test

   8.   Release, seizure and destruction

   9.   Appointment of veterinary inspectors

   10.   Obstruction of veterinary officer, veterinary inspector or officer

   11.   Indemnity

PART III
MEASURES FOR CONTROLLING AND PREVENTING ANIMAL DISEASES

   12.   Power to control introduction and spread of disease

   13.   Declaration of infected area

   14.   Owners of land to provide handling and other facilities

   15.   Government to provide livestock structures

   16.   Restriction of movement

   17.   Notification of officer of suspected disease

   18.   Isolation and separation of diseased animal

   19.   Power of entry into farm, ranch, etc.

   20.   Power to order assembly of animals for inspection, etc

   21.   Identification and traceability of animals

   22.   Declaration of disease control zone

   23.   Declaration of quarantine area

   24.   Designation of animal quarantine stations

   25.   Lifting of quarantine

   26.   Permit to manufacture or sell virus, vaccine, etc

   27.   Import of animal, animal product, animal by-product or article

   28.   Importation for scientific, educational or research purposes

   29.   Export of animals, animal products, animal by-products and articles

   30.   Approval of laboratories

   31.   Regulatory powers for eradication of diseases

PART IV
TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS

   32.   Obligation of transporter of animals in transit

   33.   Transportation of animals

   34.   Transporter of animals to maintain records

PART V
LIVESTOCK SLAUGHTER AND CLEANSING

   35.   Prohibition of slaughter of certain livestock

   36.   Permit to slaughter livestock

   37.   Permit for slaughterhouse

   38.   Power of entry

   39.   Regulations in respect of livestock slaughtering

   40.   Declaration of livestock cleansing area

   41.   Obligation of owner of livestock cleansing area

   42.   Exemption to cleanse livestock

   43.   Powers of officer in livestock cleansing area

   44.   Owner of land to provide cleansing facilities

   45.   Provision of tick control facilities

   46.   Government to provide dipping tanks or spraying races

   47.   Tick destroying agent to conform to prescribed standard

PART VI
TSETSE CONTROL

   48.   Interpretation

   49.   Declaration of tsetse fly area

   50.   Powers of Minister in respect of private land

   51.   Regulations on tsetse fly control

PART VII
GENERAL PROVISIONS ON CONTROL OF ANIMAL DISEASE

   52.   Zoo sanitary border post and internal checkpoints

   53.   System for disease control

   54.   Declaration of disease free zone

   55.   Prohibition of use of pesticides, etc. on animals without permit

   56.   Restrictions on bee keeping

   57.   Prevention and control of fish diseases

   58.   Prohibition of herding or grazing near public road

PART VIII
ANIMAL FEED

   59.   Restriction on importation, manufacture or sale of animal feed

   60.   Restriction on importation, manufacture, etc. of animal feed containing certain substances

   61.   Permit for rendering plant

   62.   Regulatory provisions for animal feed

PART IX
THE ANIMAL DISEASE CONTROL FUND

   63.   Declaration of animal disease emergency

   64.   Animal Disease Control Fund

   65.   Financial year

   66.   Accounts and audit

   67.   Establishment of Animal Disease Control Interdisciplinary Committee

   68.   Reports to Committee

PART X
COMPENSATION

   69.   Regulatory power with respect to compensation

   70.   Claim for compensation

   71.   Compensation to be withheld in certain circumstances

PART XI
GENERAL PROVISIONS

   72.   Appeals

   73.   General offences

   74.   General penalty

   75.   Prohibition of disclosure of information to unauthorised persons

   76.   Arrest without warrant

   77.   Forfeiture provisions on conviction

   78.   Disposal of seized animals, etc.

   79.   Surrender of permit on conviction

   80.   Regulations

   81.   Repeal of Cap. 252

      SCHEDULE

AN ACT

to provide for the appointment of the Director responsible for veterinary services and other staff and define their powers and functions; provide for the prevention and control of animal diseases; provide for the quarantine of animals; regulate the importation and exportation of animals, animal products, animal by­products, articles and animal feed; establish the Animal Disease Control Fund; repeal and replace the Stock Diseases Act, 1961; and provide for matters connected with, or incidental to, the foregoing.

[16th August, 2010]

Act 27 of 2010

PART I
PRELIMINARY

1. Short title

This Act may be cited as the Animal Health Act.

2. Interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“animal” means any vertebrate, other than a human being, which is a member of the Phylum Chordata and includes a bee, butterfly and other insect used in the production of animal products, including the carcass of such animals; and

“animal by-product” means any part or entire body of an animal or products of animal origin that are not intended to be eaten by human beings;

“animal feed” means—

      (a)   any—

      (i)   substance obtained by a process of crushing, gristing or grinding or by the addition to any substance or removal there from of any ingredient;

      (ii)   condimental foodstuff or mineral substance which possesses, or is alleged to possess, nutritive properties; or

      (iii)   substance of animal origin;

which is intended or offered for the feeding of animals; or

      (b)   any stock lick or substance which can be and is used as a stock lick, whether or not it possesses medicinal properties;

but does not include straw, chaff, hay, silage, cereal in the grain or any substance which has been crushed, gristed or ground for a farmer in accordance with the farmer’s directions for own use, unless such substance has been declared by the Minister, by notice in the Gazette, to be animal feed for the purposes of this Act;

“animal product” means any meat, meat product or product of animal origin for human consumption, for use in animal feeding or for pharmaceutical or agricultural use, and includes an embryo, ova, semen, blood, bone or bone meal, hide, skin, horn, fat, honey, unprocessed wool and feathers;

“animal quarantine station” means a place where any animal, animal product, animal by-product or article may be kept for observation, research, inspection, testing, treatment, detention or destruction for the purposes of disease control and prevention;

“article” includes gear, harness, seed, grass, forage, hay, straw, manure or any other thing likely to act as a carrier of any disease;

“border inspection post” means a veterinary inspection post near or at the border or the point of entry designated by the Minister, by statutory instrument;

“carcass” means the carcass of an animal, and includes part of a carcass, and the meat, bone, hide, skin, feather, hoof, horn, offal, fur, wool, teeth or any other part of an animal;

“cattle” means bulls, cows, heifers, calves, steers and oxen;

“Chairperson” means a person appointed as such under section 67;

“check point” means a point where any animal, animal product, animal by-product or article may be inspected for purposes of disease control and prevention;

“cleanse” in relation to Part V, means the maintaining of livestock free from tick infestation by using an effective tick destroying agent in such manner as the Director may direct;

“Committee” means the Animal Disease Control Interdisciplinary Committee constituted under section 67;

“controlled veterinary action” in relation to an animal, means—

      (a)   the isolation, detention, inspection, testing, immunisation, observation, sampling, marking, treatment, care, destruction or disposal thereof; and

      (b)   the carrying out of any post mortem examination on any animal;

“conveyance” means an aircraft, ship, vessel, train, vehicle, carriage, cart or other conveyance of whatever kind, including the fittings and equipment of the conveyance and, in the case of animals, the harness and tackle thereof;

“Department” means the Department responsible for Veterinary Services;

“dipping” means the complete immersion of cattle in a dipping tank containing an effective tick destroying agent;

“dipping tank” means any apparatus for the cleaning of animals by submerging or any other structure used for that purpose as the Director may approve;

“Director” means the Director responsible for veterinary services, and includes the Deputy Director responsible for veterinary services;

“disease” means the pathological condition of apart, organ or system of an animal resulting from various causes such as infection, genetic defect or environment;

“disease control zone” means an area declared by the Director as a disease control zone where controlled veterinary actions are instituted to prevent the entry, occurrence or spread of a causative agent, and includes a disease free zone, a buffer zone, a disease free compartment, a protective zone, a surveillance zone and an infected zone;

“disease free zone” means an area established for the maintenance of disease free status of a sub population of animals with a distinct health status, from specified disease or diseases, separated by natural or artificial boundaries;

“disease free compartment” means an area smaller than a zone with a clearly defined management practice and biosecurity plan and can be recognised as such within an infected zone;

“effective tick destroying agent” means a drug or chemical registered as an acaricide under the Pharmaceutical Act, 2004, or as the Minister may prescribe;

“emerging disease” means a new infection resulting from the evolution or change of an existing pathogenic agent, a known infection spreading to a new geographic area or population or a previously unrecognised pathogenic agent diagnosed for the first time and which has a significant impact on animal or public health;

“Fund” means the Animal Diseases Control Fund established under section 64;

“immature cattle” means cattle, male or female, under the age of eighteen months or not having four permanent incisor teeth yet erupted;

“infected area” means an area declared as such under section 13;

“livestock” means any breed or population of animal kept by a human being for a useful or commercial purpose, and includes domestic animals, semi-domestic animals and captive wild animals;

“livestock cleansing area” means an area declared as such under section 40;

“notifiable disease” means an animal disease or other disease which fulfils one or more of the following conditions and which the Minister may, by statutory instrument, declare—

      (a)   is not indigenous or native to Zambia;

      (b)   spreads rapidly with serious socio economic consequences;

      (c)   is of major importance in the international trade of animals or animal products;

      (d)   is common to human beings and animals; or

      (e)   for which any general or particular control measures have been prescribed;

“officer” means a veterinary officer, livestock officer, veterinary assistant or animal scientist employed by the Government;

“outbreak of disease” means an occurrence of one of the notifiable diseases or any other disease which the Minister may, by statutory instrument, declare in—

      (a)   any agricultural or breeding establishment, premises or building and all the adjoining premises where animals are present; or

      (b)   any area where animals are communally grazed as specified by the Director;

“owner”—

      (a)   in relation to an animal, includes the person for the time being having the management, custody or control of such animal; and

      (b)   in relation to any land or place, includes any person who, whether lessee or licensee, has the charge, control and management or occupation of such land or place;

“para veterinary” has the meaning assigned to it in the Veterinary and Para Veterinary Professionals Act, 2010;

“permit” means a permit issued under the provisions of this Act;

“police officer” has the meaning assigned to it in the Police Act;

“pour-on” means a chemical with a vector destroying capacity applied on the skin surface of an animal;

“public road” has the meaning assigned to it in the Public Roads Act, 2002;

“railway company” means the Zambia Railways and any other railway company operating in Zambia;

“rendering” means the process that converts waste animal tissue or animal by-products into stable value added materials;

“spraying” means the complete saturation of animals with an effective vector destroying agent, manually or mechanically;

“spray race” means any effective apparatus approved by the Director for the cleansing of animals by spraying;

“tick infestation” means the presence on any cattle of one or more ticks;

“vector” means a disease spreading agent;

“veterinary inspector” means a veterinary surgeon appointed by the Director to undertake designated official duties on behalf of the Department for a specified period and location;

“veterinary officer” means an officer in the service of the Government who is a registered veterinary surgeon;

“veterinary surgeon” means a person registered as a veterinary surgeon under the Veterinary Surgeons Act; and

“Vice Chairperson” means a person appointed as such under section 67.

PART II
ADMINISTRATION

3. Appointment of Director and other staff

The Public Service Commission shall appoint, as public officers, a Director responsible for veterinary services, a Deputy Director responsible for veterinary services, veterinary officers, tsetse control biologists, animal scientists and other staff for the Department, within the Ministry responsible for livestock development, as shall be necessary for the proper administration of this Act.

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