New regulations on the quarantine of imported animals simplify many administrative procedures and technical controls. Picture: Quang Linh.
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has issued many circulars and pioneering regulations on administrative reform activities in the field of veterinary medicine and animal quarantine.
Among them are Circular 06 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circulars regulating the quarantine of aquatic animals and animal products and Circular 09 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. Articles of Circulars regulating the quarantine of terrestrial animals and animal products have received a lot of positive feedback from companies.
According to Mr. Bui Duc Anh, Head of Lach Huyen Port Animal Quarantine Station, Sub-Department of Animal Health Region II, Department of Animal Health (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the biggest change of Circular 06 and Circular 09 is in comparison on regulations The former are intended to simplify administrative procedures and reduce specialist inspections, which will contribute to improving the investment environment for companies and increasing the competitiveness of companies.
Mr. Bui Duc Anh, Head of Lach Huyen Port Animal Quarantine Station, Subdivision of Animal Health Region II. Image: Quang Linh.
In particular, Circular 06 provides a quarantine exemption for many quarantined items such as: B.: pre-processed and processed water products; Aquatic animal products imported as raw materials for processing and export; Aquatic animals and animal products subject to diplomacy, used as test samples and displayed at fairs and exhibitions; Aquatic animal products for export are recalled or returned.
Circular 06 also stipulates that only quarantine of aquatic animal products in the form of fresh, frozen, chilled and for some groups of high-risk products will be tested.
Regarding the sampling frequency: if the test results of 3 consecutive batches are satisfactory, the next 5 batches will only randomly sample 1 batch for testing (which reduces 80% of the number of batches to be sampled) specified time to 5 samples to 1 test combine sample.
According to Circular 09 Reduction of disease testing rate in imported breeding animals with an estimated prevalence of 5%, combination of 5 samples into 1 test sample. Before that, 100% spot checks and single sample tests had to be carried out.
In addition, animal products only have to be tested for animal pathogens for each animal species. Reduce the number of samples in a shipment: only take 1-3 samples for testing (previously 3-5 samples/batch). The time to return the results is reduced from 3-5 days to 2-3 days.
Thanks to the shift in the quarantine method from single sample to pooled sample, testing has changed from microbial culture of the sample to testing by molecular biotechnology (PCR; real-time PCR), marking a breakthrough for this specialized test.
Thanks to the new quarantine regulations, the time it takes for test results to be returned is reduced from 3-5 days to 1-2 days. Picture: Quang Linh.
In addition, the administrative procedures involved have been significantly reduced, avoiding waste of human resources for companies and functional staff.
In particular, the regulation in Circular 06 that if the test results from 3 consecutive shipments are satisfactory, only 1 random sample is taken from the next 5 shipments for examination, also encourages companies to strictly comply with the regulations.
Mr. Do Hung Thang, Sang Ngoc Food Co., Ltd. said that the company’s import of animal commodities and animal products has become more convenient as many administrative procedures are reduced since the introduction of Circulars 06 and 09.
Many shipments were excluded, reduced to quarantine samples, and some batches only have to be subjected to physical and chemical sensory testing. As a result, the company saved about 60% in testing costs.
In addition, the time to return the test results is reduced from 3 – 5 days to 1 – 2 days, which saves a lot of storage costs, does not affect the quality of goods, and creates favorable conditions for companies to send goods to partners soon.
In order for Circular 06 and Circular 09 to promote maximum effectiveness, Mr. Bui Duc Anh recommends that, in addition to the above two circulars, organizations and individuals upon import must carefully study the relevant legal documents to create favorable conditions for the animal quarantine authority.
In addition to the benefits of the new animal quarantine regulations, in order to achieve the current achievements, the Department of Animal Health issued two guidance documents to its affiliated units to effectively implement Circular No. 06 and Circular 09 – the departments disseminated the contents of the new Circular also to relevant organizations and individuals.