Regulation 2008/798 - List of third countries, territories, zones or compartments from which poultry and poultry products may be imported into and transit through the EC and the veterinary certification requirements - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 226/1

Directive 90/539/EEC lays down animal health conditions governing imports into the Community from third countries of poultry and hatching eggs. It provides that poultry and hatching eggs are to satisfy the conditions laid down therein and originate in a third country or part thereof included on a list drawn up in accordance with that Directive.

Directive 2002/99/EC lays down rules governing the introduction from third countries of products of animal origin and products obtained there from intended for human consumption. It provides that such products are only to be imported into the Community if they comply with the requirements applicable to all stages of the production, processing and distribution of those products in the Community or if they offer equivalent animal health guarantees.

Commission Decision 2006/696/EC of 28 August 2006 laying down a list of third countries from which poultry, hatching eggs, day-old chicks, meat of poultry, ratites and wild game-birds, eggs and egg products and specified pathogen-free eggs may be imported into and transit through the Community and the applicable veterinary certification conditions (9) sets out a list of third countries from which the commodities concerned may be imported into, and transit through, the Community and lays down the veterinary certification conditions.

Commission Decision 93/342/EEC of 12 May 1993 laying down the criteria for classifying third countries with regard to avian influenza and Newcastle disease in relation to imports of live poultry and hatching eggs (10) and Commission Decision 94/438/EC of 7 June 1994 laying down the criteria for classifying third countries and parts thereof with regard to avian influenza and Newcastle disease in relation to imports of fresh poultrymeat (11) lay down criteria for classifying third countries with regard to avian influenza and Newcastle disease in relation to imports of live poultry, hatching eggs and poultrymeat.

Community legislation for the control of avian influenza has recently been updated by Council Directive 2005/94/EC of 20 December 2005 on Community measures for the control of avian influenza (12), to take account of the most recent scientific knowledge and developments on the epidemiology of avian influenza in the Community and worldwide. The scope of the control measures to be applied in the event of an outbreak has been extended from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to deal also with outbreaks of low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI), and to introduce compulsory active surveillance for avian influenza and a wider use of vaccination against this disease.

Imports from third countries should therefore meet conditions equivalent to those applied within the Community and which are in line with the revised requirements for international trade in poultry and poultry products laid down by the standards of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code of the World Organisation for Animal health (OIE) (13) and the Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals (14) of the OIE.

Argentina and Israel have submitted their avian influenza surveillance programmes to the Commission for evaluation. The Commission has examined these programmes and they conform to the relevant Community provisions and therefore a positive evaluation of these programmes should be indicated in the column 7 of part 1 of Annex I to this Regulation.

Article 21(2) of Directive 90/539/EEC sets out certain matters that are to be taken into account when deciding whether or not a third country or part thereof maybe included in the list of third countries from which poultry and hatching eggs may be imported into the Community, such as the state of health of poultry, the regularity and rapidity of the supply of information by a third country relating to the existence of certain contagious animal diseases, including avian influenza and Newcastle disease and the rules for animal disease prevention and control in the third country concerned.

Article 8 of Directive 2002/99/EC provides that when drawing up lists of third countries or regions of third countries thereof from which imports of specified products of animal origin are permitted into the Community, particular account is to be taken of certain matters, such as the health status of livestock, the regularity, speed and accuracy with which the third country supplies information on the existence of certain infectious or contagious animal diseases in its territory, in particular avian influenza and Newcastle disease and the general health situation in the third country concerned which might pose a risk to public or animal health in the Community.

In the interests of animal health, this Regulation should provide that commodities should only be imported into the Community from third countries, territories, zones or compartments which have in place avian influenza surveillance programmes and avian influenza vaccination plans, where such vaccination is carried out.

Pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003, admission to or retention on the lists of third countries provided for in Community legislation from which Member States are authorised to import certain poultry commodities covered by that Regulation is subject to the submission to the Commission by the third country concerned of a programme equivalent to national control programmes for Salmonella to be established by the Member States, and its approval by the Commission. A positive evaluation of these programmes should be indicated in part 1 of Annex I to this Regulation.

The Community and certain third countries wish to permit trade in poultry and poultry products coming from approved compartments and therefore the principle of compartmentalisation for imports of poultry and poultry products should be further laid down in Community legislation. The compartmentalisation principle has been laid down recently by the OIE in order to facilitate world wide trade in poultry and poultry products and therefore it should be incorporated into Community legislation.

Currently Community legislation does not provide for certificates for the import into the Community of minced meat and mechanically separated meat of poultry, ratites and wild game-birds, for certain health reasons, in particular the traceability of meat used for its production. Accordingly, model veterinary certificates covering those commodities should be provided for in this Regulation following further scientific investigations.

In order to provide more flexibility in certain situations for the competent authorities for veterinary certificates purposes, and based on several requests from third countries exporting day-old chicks of poultry and ratites to the Community, this Regulation should provide that such commodities should be examined at the time of dispatch of the consignment instead of at the time of issue of the veterinary certificate.

In order to avoid any interruption in trade, imports into the Community of commodities that have been produced before the introduction of animal health restrictions, as set out in Part 1 of Annex I to this Regulation, should continue to be permitted for 90 days following the introduction of import restrictions for the commodity concerned.

Specific conditions for transit via the Community of consignments to and from Russia should be provided for owing to the geographical situation of Kaliningrad which affects only Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation) (15)set out general Community health rules applicable to the import into, and transit through, the Community of the commodities covered by the Regulation.

In addition, Council Directive 96/93/EC of 17 December 1996 on the certification of animals and animal products (16) lays down standards of certification which are necessary to ensure valid certification and to prevent fraud. It is, therefore, appropriate to ensure in this Regulation that the rules and principles applied by third country certifying officers provide guarantees that are equivalent to those laid down in that Directive and that the model veterinary certificates laid down in this Regulation reflect only such facts as may be attested at the time the certificate is issued.

In the interests of clarity and coherence of Community legislation, Decisions 93/342/EEC, 94/438/EC and 2006/696/EC should be repealed and replaced by this Regulation.

It is appropriate to provide for a transitional period to permit Member States and industry to take the necessary measures to comply with the applicable veterinary certification requirements laid down in this Regulation.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,

poultry, hatching eggs, day-old chicks and specified pathogen-free eggs;

meat, minced meat and mechanically separated meat of poultry, including ratites and wild game-birds, eggs and egg products.

‘poultry’ means fowl, turkeys, guinea fowl, ducks, geese, quails, pigeons, pheasants, partridges and ratites (ratitae), reared or kept in captivity for breeding, the production of meat or eggs for consumption, or for restocking supplies of game;

‘hatching eggs’ means eggs for incubation, laid by poultry;

‘day-old chicks’ means all poultry less than 72 hours old, not yet fed and muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata) or their crosses, less than 72 hours old whether or not fed;

‘breeding poultry’ means poultry 72 hours old or more, intended for the production of hatching eggs;

‘productive poultry’ means poultry 72 hours old or more, reared for:

‘specified pathogen-free eggs’ means hatching eggs which are derived from ‘chicken flocks free from specified pathogens’, as described in the European Pharmacopoeia (17), and which are intended solely for diagnostic, research or pharmaceutical use;

‘meat’ means edible parts of the following animals:

‘mechanically separated meat’ means the product obtained by removing meat from flesh-bearing bones after boning or from poultry carcases, using mechanical means resulting in the loss or modification of the muscle fibre structure;

‘minced meat’ means de-boned meat that has been minced into fragments and contains less than 1 % salt;

‘zone’ means a clearly defined part of a third country containing an animal subpopulation with a distinct health status with respect to a specific disease for which the required surveillance, control and biosecurity measures have been applied for the purpose of imports under this Regulation;

‘compartment’ means one or more poultry establishments in a third country under a common biosecurity management system containing a poultry subpopulation with a distinct health status with respect to a specific disease or diseases for which the required surveillance, control and biosecurity measures have been applied for the purpose of imports under this Regulation;

‘establishment’ means a facility or part of a facility which occupies a single site and is devoted to one or more of the following activities:

‘hatchery’ means an establishment which incubates and hatches eggs and supplies day-old chicks;

‘flock’ means all poultry of the same health status kept on the same facilities or in the same enclosure and constituting a single epidemiological unit; as regards housed poultry, this definition includes all birds sharing the same airspace;

‘avian influenza’ means an infection of poultry caused by any influenza A virus:

‘highly pathogenic avian influenza’ (HPAI) means an infection of poultry caused by:

‘low pathogenic avian influenza’ (LPAI) means an infection of poultry caused by avian influenza viruses of subtypes H5 or H7 other than HPAI;

‘Newcastle disease’ means an infection of poultry:

‘official veterinarian’ means the veterinarian designated by the competent authority;

‘differentiating infected from vaccinated animal (DIVA) strategy’ means a vaccination strategy which enables a differentiation to be made between vaccinated/infected and vaccinated/non-infected animals through the application of a diagnostic test designed to detect antibodies against the field virus and the use of non-vaccinated sentinel birds.

a veterinary certificate as referred to in paragraph 1 which shall bear the words ‘for transit through the EC’, and

a certificate required by the third country of destination.

third country, territory, zone or compartment is listed in columns 1 and 3 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I and column 4 of that table provides for a model veterinary certificate for the commodity concerned;

they are not covered by an import ban for animal health reasons;

the importation conditions include the requirement for post-import isolation or quarantine.

the additional guarantees, as specified in column 5 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I;

the specific conditions set out in column 6, and where appropriate, the closing dates set out in column 6A and the opening dates set out in column 6B, of the table in Part 1 of Annex I;

the animal health additional guarantees, where required by the Member State of destination and referred to in the certificate;

the restrictions in relation to the approval of a Salmonella control programme, shall only apply when indicated in the appropriate column of the table in Part 1 of Annex I.

informs the Commission of the disease situation within 24 hours of confirmation of any initial outbreaks of HPAI or Newcastle disease;

submits virus isolates from initial outbreaks of those diseases, without undue delay to the Community reference laboratory for avian influenza and Newcastle disease (18); however, such virus isolates shall not be required for imports of eggs, egg products and specified pathogen-free eggs from third countries, territories, zones or compartments from which the import of such commodities into the Community is authorised;

submits to the Commission regular updates on the disease situation.

avian influenza has not been present in the third country, territory, zone or compartment for a period of at least 12 months preceding the certification by the official veterinarian;

an avian influenza surveillance programme, in accordance with Article 10 has been carried out during a period of at least six months preceding the certification referred to in point (a) of this paragraph where required in the certificate.

in the case of HPAI, a stamping out policy has been implemented to control the disease;

in the case of LPAI, either a stamping out policy has been implemented or the poultry have been slaughtered to control the disease;

adequate cleansing and disinfection has been carried out on all previously infected establishments;

avian influenza surveillance has been carried out in accordance with Part II of Annex IV during a three-month period following completion of the cleansing and disinfection referred to in point (c) of this paragraph with negative results.

a stamping out policy has been implemented to control the disease, including adequate cleansing and disinfection carried out on all previously infected establishments;

avian influenza surveillance has been carried out in accordance with Part II of Annex IV during a three-month period following completion of the stamping out policy and cleansing and disinfection referred to in point (a).

the third country, territory, zone or compartment has had in place for a period of at least six months an avian influenza surveillance programme, which is indicated in column 7 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I, and that programme meets the requirements:

the third country informs the Commission of any changes to its avian influenza surveillance programme.

the third country carries out vaccination against avian influenza in accordance with a vaccination plan indicated in column 8 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I, and that plan meets the requirements set out in Annex V;

the third country informs the Commission of any changes to its avian influenza vaccination plan.

no outbreaks of Newcastle disease have occurred in poultry in the third country, territory, zone or compartment for a period of at least 12 months preceding the certification by the official veterinarian;

no vaccination against Newcastle disease using vaccines that do not comply with the criteria for recognised Newcastle disease vaccines set out in Annex VI has been carried out for at least the period referred to in point (a) of this paragraph.

a stamping out policy has been implemented to control the disease;

adequate cleansing and disinfection has been carried out on all previously infected establishments;

during a period of at least three months following the completion of the stamping out policy and cleansing and disinfection referred to in points (a) and (b):

the third country, territory, zone or compartment allows the use of vaccines which comply with the general criteria set out in Part I of Annex VI, but not with the specific criteria set out in Part II of that Annex;

the additional health requirements set out in Part I of Annex VII are complied with.

breeding and productive poultry other than ratites, hatching eggs and day-old chicks other than of ratites, the requirements set out in Annex VIII;

ratites for breeding and production, hatching eggs and day-old chicks thereof, the requirements set out in Annex IX.

they shall be marked with a stamp bearing the ISO code of the third country of origin and the approval number of the establishment of origin;

each package of specified pathogen-free eggs must only contain eggs from the same third country of origin, establishment and consignor, and must bear at least the following particulars:

specified pathogen-free eggs imported into the Community must be transported directly to their final destination after import controls have been completed satisfactorily.

loaded onto a means of transport carrying other poultry and day-old chicks of a lower health status;

in the course of transport to the Community, shall not be moved through nor unloaded in a third country, territory, zone or compartment from which imports of such poultry and day-old chicks into the Community are not authorised.

the consignment is sealed with a serially numbered seal by the official veterinarian at the border inspection post of entry;

the documents accompanying the consignment, as provided for in Article 7 of Directive 97/78/EC, are stamped with the words ‘Only for transit to Russia via the EC’ on each page by the official veterinarian at the border inspection post of entry;

the procedural requirements provided for in Article 11 of Directive 97/78/EC are complied with;

the consignment is certified as acceptable for transit on the common veterinary entry document issued by the official veterinarian at the border inspection post of entry.

:

Model veterinary certificate for breeding or productive poultry other than ratites

:

Guarantees for breeding and productive ratites coming from a third country, territory or zone not free from Newcastle disease, certified in accordance with model BPR

:

Prohibition to import into the Community breeding poultry of Gallus gallus, day-old chicks of Gallus gallus intended for breeding purposes and hatching eggs of Gallus gallus because a Salmonella control programme in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 has not been submitted to the Commission or approved by it.

:

Prohibition to import into or transit through the Community due to restrictions related to a HPAI outbreak

:

Third country, territory, zone or compartment carries out an avian influenza surveillance programme in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 798/2008

Veterinary certificates based on the models in Part 2 of this Annex and following the layout of the model that corresponds to the commodity concerned shall be issued by the exporting country, territory, zone or compartment. They shall contain, in the order appearing in the model, the attestations that are required for any third country and, where applicable, those additional health requirements required for the exporting country, territory, zone or compartment.

Where additional guarantees are required by the EU Member State of destination for the commodity concerned, these shall also be entered on the original of the veterinary certificate.

A separate, single certificate must be presented for each consignment of the commodity concerned, exported to the same destination from a territory appearing in columns 2 and 3 of Part 1 of this Annex and transported in the same railway wagon, lorry, aircraft or ship.

The original of certificates shall consist of a single page printed on both sides or, where more text is required, such that all the pages form a whole and cannot be separated.

The certificate shall be drawn up in at least one official language of the EU Member State where the border inspection takes place and in one official language of the EU Member State of destination. However, those Member States may allow another Community language instead of their own, accompanied, if necessary, by an official translation.

Where additional pages are attached to the certificate for the purposes of identifying the items making up the consignment, such additional pages shall also be considered to form part of the original of the certificate, provided the signature and stamp of the certifying official veterinarian appear on each page.

Where the certificate, including any additional pages as provided for in (e), comprises more than one page, each page shall be numbered ‘–x(page number) of y(total number of pages)–’ on the bottom and shall bear the code number of the certificate allocated by the competent authority on the top.

The original of the certificate must be completed and signed by an official veterinarian not more than 24 hours prior to loading of the consignment for imports to the Community, unless otherwise stated. To that end, the competent authorities of the exporting country shall ensure that principles of certification equivalent to those laid down in Directive 96/93/EC are followed.

The colour of the signature shall be different from that of the printing. The same rule shall apply to stamps other than embossed stamps or watermarks.

The original of the certificate must accompany the consignment as far as the EU border inspection post.

The certificate shall be valid for 10 days from the date of issue, unless otherwise stated.

In the case of transport by ship, the term of validity shall be extended by the time taken by the voyage. To that end, the original of a declaration by the ship's master, drawn up in accordance with Annex II, shall be attached to the veterinary certificate.

Poultry and day-old chicks shall not be transported with other poultry and day-old chicks that are either not intended for the European Community or of a lower health status.

Poultry and day-old chicks shall not in the course of transport to the Community be moved through nor unloaded in a third country, territory, zone or compartment from which imports of such poultry and day-old chicks into the Community are not authorised.

Avian influenza

Newcastle disease

Salmonella pullorum and Salmonella gallinarum

Salmonella arizonae

Mycoplasma gallisepticum

Mycoplasma meleagridis

Chapter III of Annex II to Directive 90/539/EEC.

Salmonella of public health significance

The detection method recommended by the Community reference laboratory (CRL) for Salmonella in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, or an equivalent method shall be used. That method is described in the current version of draft Annex D of ISO 6579 (2002): ‘Detection of Salmonella spp. in animal faeces and in samples of the primary production stage’. In that detection method, a semi-solid medium (modified semi-solid Rappaport-Vassiladis medium, MSRV) is used as the single selective enrichment medium.

Serotyping shall be carried out following the Kauffmann-White scheme or an equivalent method.

Between the seventh and the fifteenth day following the date of commencement of the isolation period, cloacal swabs must be taken from all birds where the consignment contains less than 60 birds, and from at least 60 birds where consignments contain more than 60 birds;

Testing of samples must be carried out in official laboratories designated by the competent authority, using diagnostic procedures for:

Samples may be pooled, subject to a maximum of five samples from individual birds in each pool.

Virus isolates must be sent without delay to the national reference laboratory.

Description of objectives

Third country, territory, zone or compartment (keep as appropriate):

Type of surveillance:

Sampling criteria:

Statistical basis for number of establishments sampled:

Frequency of sampling

Number of samples taken per establishment/shed

Time period for sampling

Type of samples taken (tissue, faeces, cloacal/oropharyngeal/tracheal swabs)

Laboratory tests used (for example, AGID, PCR, HI, Virus isolation.)

Indication of laboratories carrying out testing at central, regional or local level (keep as appropriate)

Indication of reference laboratory carrying out confirmatory testing (avian influenza national reference laboratory, OIE or Community reference laboratory for avian influenza)

Reporting system/protocol used for avian influenza surveillance results (include results where available)

Follow-up investigations of positive results for subtypes H5 and H7.

Type of surveillance:

Sampling criteria

Targeting of wild bird species (indicate species names in Latin)

Targeting of selected areas

Information referred to in point 6 and points 8 to 12 of Part I.A.

Country, territory, zone or compartment (keep as appropriate)

Disease history (previous outbreaks in poultry or cases in wild birds of HPAI/LPAI)

Description of the reasons for the decision on the introduction of vaccination

Risk assessment based on:

Geographical area where vaccination is carried out

Number of establishments in vaccination area

Number of establishments where vaccination is carried out, if different from number in point 6

Species and categories of poultry or other captive birds in vaccination territory, zone or compartment

Approximate number of poultry or other captive birds in the establishments referred to in point 7

Summary of the vaccine characteristics

Authorisation, handling, manufacture, storage, supply, distribution and sale of avian influenza vaccines on national territory

Implementation of a DIVA strategy

Envisaged duration of vaccination campaign

Provisions and restrictions on the movements of vaccinated poultry and poultry products derived from vaccinated poultry or vaccinated other captive birds

Clinical and laboratory tests carried out in the establishments vaccinated and/or located in the vaccination area (e.g. efficacy and pre-movement testing etc.)

Means of record keeping (e.g. for the detailed information referred to point 15) and registration of holdings where vaccination is carried out.

Number of vaccinated establishments in area per category

Number of vaccinated establishments to be sampled per poultry category

Use of sentinel birds (indicate species and number of sentinel birds used per shed)

Number of samples taken per establishment and/or shed

Data on vaccine efficacy.

Vaccines must be registered by the competent authorities of the third country concerned before being allowed to be distributed and used. For such registration, the competent authorities must rely on a complete file containing data about efficacy and innocuity; for imported vaccines the competent authorities may rely on data checked by the competent authorities of the country where the vaccine is produced, as far as these checks have been carried out in conformity with internationally accepted standards.

In addition, imports or production and distribution of the vaccines must be controlled by the competent authorities of the third country concerned.

Before distribution is allowed, each batch of vaccines must be tested on innocuity, in particular regarding attenuation or inactivation and absence of undesired contaminating agents, and on efficacy on behalf of the competent authorities.

Live Newcastle disease vaccines shall be prepared from a Newcastle disease virus strain for which the master seed has been tested and shown to have an intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) of either:

Inactivated Newcastle disease vaccines shall be prepared from a Newcastle disease virus strain with an intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) in one-day-old chicks of less than 0,7, if not less than 108 EID50 are administered to each bird in the ICPI test.

Where the third country, territory, zone or compartment does not prohibit the use of Newcastle disease vaccines that do not meet the specific criteria set out in Annex VI the following additional health requirements shall apply to:

Where day-old chicks are imported from a third country, territory, zone or compartment as referred to in point 1, the day-old chicks and the hatching eggs from which the day-old chicks are derived must not have been in contact in the hatchery or during transport with poultry or hatching eggs not meeting the requirements set out in point 1(a) to (d).

has not been vaccinated with vaccines prepared from a Newcastle disease virus master seed showing a higher pathogenicity than lentogenic strains of the virus within 30 days preceding slaughter;

underwent a virus isolation test for Newcastle disease, carried out in an official laboratory at the time of slaughter on a random sample of cloacal swabs from at least 60 birds in each flock concerned and in which no avian paramyxoviruses with an Intracerebral Pathogenicity Index (ICPI) of more than 0,4 were found;

has not been in contact in 30 days preceding the date of slaughter with poultry that does not fulfil the conditions set out in (a) and (b).

Breeding and productive poultry other than ratites, hatching eggs and day-old chicks other than of ratites for import into the Community shall only come from establishments which have been approved by the competent authority of the third country concerned in accordance with conditions that are at least as strict as those laid down in Annex II to Directive 90/539/EEC and where such approval has not been suspended or withdrawn.

Where breeding and productive poultry other than ratites, hatching eggs and day-old chicks other than of ratites and/or their flocks of origin are to undergo testing to meet the requirements of the relevant veterinary certificates laid down in this Regulation, sampling for testing and the testing itself must be carried out in accordance with Annex III.

Hatching eggs for import into the Community shall bear the name of the third country of origin and the word ‘hatching’ that is more than 3mm high in one of the official languages of the Community.

Each package of hatching eggs as referred to in point 3 shall contain only eggs of a single species, category and type of poultry from the same third country, territory, zone or compartment of origin and consignor, and shall bear at least the following particulars:

Each box of imported day-old chicks shall contain only a single species, category and type of poultry from the same third country, territory, zone or compartment of origin, hatchery and consignor and shall bear at least the following particulars:

Imported breeding and productive poultry other than ratites and day-old chicks other than of ratites shall be kept on the establishment(s) of destination from their date of arrival:

However, the period provided for in (a) may be reduced to three weeks, provided that sampling and testing in accordance with Annex III have been carried out with favourable results.

Breeding and productive poultry other than ratites which have been hatched from imported hatching eggs shall be kept for at least three weeks from the date of hatching in the hatchery or for at least three weeks on the establishment(s) to which the poultry has been sent after hatching.

Where day-old chicks are not reared in the Member State which imported the hatching eggs, they shall be transported directly to the final destination (as specified in points 1.10 and 1.11 of the health certificate, Model 2 in Annex IV to Directive 90/539/EEC) and kept there for at least three weeks from the date of hatching.

During the relevant periods, as referred to in points 1 and 2, imported breeding and productive poultry and day-old chicks and breeding and productive poultry other than ratites which have hatched from imported hatching eggs shall be kept in isolation in poultry houses where no other flocks are present.

However, they may be introduced into poultry houses where breeding and productive poultry and day-old chicks are already present.

In that case, the relevant periods referred to in points 1 and 2 shall commence from the date of introduction of the last imported bird and no poultry present shall be moved from the poultry houses before the end of those periods.

Imported hatching eggs shall be hatched in separate incubators and hatchers.

However, imported hatching eggs may be introduced into incubators and hatchers where other hatching eggs are already present.

In that case, the periods referred to in points 1 and 2 shall commence from the date of introduction of the last imported hatching egg.

No later than the date of expiry of the relevant periods as provided for in point 1 or 2, imported breeding and productive poultry and day-old chicks shall undergo a clinical examination carried out by the official veterinarian and, where necessary, samples shall be taken to monitor their state of health.

Imported ratites for breeding and production (ratites) shall be identified by neck-tags and/or microchips bearing the ISO code of the third country of origin. Such microchips must comply with ISO standards.

Imported hatching eggs of ratites shall be marked with a stamp indicating the ISO code of the third country of origin and the approval number of the establishment of origin.

Each package of hatching eggs as referred to in point 2 shall contain only eggs of ratites from the same third country, territory, zone or compartment of origin and consignor, and shall bear at least the following particulars:

Each box of imported day-old chicks of ratites for breeding and production shall contain only ratites from the same third country, territory, zone or compartment of origin, establishment and consignor, and shall bear at least the following particulars:

After the import controls have been carried out in accordance with Directive 91/496/EEC, consignments of ratites and hatching eggs and day-old chicks thereof shall be transported directly to the final destination.

Imported ratites and day-old chicks thereof shall be kept on the establishment(s) of destination from their date of arrival:

Ratites which have hatched from imported hatching eggs shall be kept for a period of at least three weeks from the date of hatching in the hatchery or for at least three weeks on the establishment(s) to which they have been sent after hatching.

During the relevant periods as referred to in points 2 and 3, imported ratites and ratites which have hatched from imported hatching eggs shall be kept in isolation in poultry houses where no other ratites or poultry are present.

However, they may be introduced into poultry houses where other ratites or poultry are already present. In that case, the periods referred to in points 2 and 3 shall commence from the date of introduction of the last imported ratite and no ratites or poultry present shall be moved from the poultry housing before the end of those periods.

Imported hatching eggs shall be hatched in separate incubators and hatchers.

However, imported hatching eggs may be introduced into incubators and hatchers where other hatching eggs are already present. In that case, the periods referred to in points 2 and 3 shall commence from the date of introduction of the last imported hatching egg and the measures as provided for in those points shall apply.

No later than the date of expiry of the relevant periods as referred to in point 2 or 3, imported ratites and day-old chicks thereof shall undergo a clinical examination carried out by an official veterinarian and, where necessary, samples shall be taken to monitor their state of health.

before the date the isolation period begins, the competent authority shall check the isolation facilities as referred to in point 4 of Part II of this Annex to verify whether they are satisfactory;

during the relevant periods as referred to in points 2 and 3 of Part II of this Annex a virus isolation test for Newcastle disease shall be carried out on a cloacal swab or faeces sample from each ratite;

where ratites are to be sent to a Member State, the status of which has been established in accordance with Article 12(2) of Directive 90/539/EEC, a serological test shall be carried out on each ratite, in addition to the virus isolation test provided for in point (b) of this Part;

negative results of the tests provided for in points (b) and (c) shall be available before any bird is released from isolation.