delete FURTHER SPECIFIED DISEASES
This Order amends several statutory instruments relating to animal disease notification and control in England. Key changes include: (1) replacing 'special/declaratory order' with 'declaration' terminology for disease zone declarations with enhanced procedural requirements; (2) adding new specified diseases (Ebola virus, Glanders, Surra, Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans) to notification requirements; (3) creating notification procedures for Avian Mycoplasmosis and Avian Chlamydiosis; (4) modifying enforcement provisions to include Secretary of State; (5) changing Foot-and-Mouth Disease controls from mandatory to discretionary; and (6) revoking the Avian Influenza (H5N1 in Poultry) (England) Order 2006.
This Order exemplifies the regulatory creep that burden British agriculture and aquaculture. While disease monitoring has legitimate purposes, adding multiple new notifiable diseases (including Ebola virus in primates, amphibian fungi, and various livestock pathogens) imposes compliance costs on farmers, veterinarians, and laboratories with no corresponding evidence of market failure. The expansion of Schedule 1A with six additional 'further specified diseases' creates de facto licensing requirements and potential liability for farmers who fail to report. Critically, this Order was made without adequate impact assessment — the regulatory costs fall disproportionately on small farms and exotic animal keepers while the benefits (if any) are diffuse. The revocation of the 2006 Avian Influenza Order is positive but overdue. In a genuinely free market, voluntary certification schemes and private veterinary relationships would handle disease monitoring more efficiently than government-mandated notification lists that date from an era of state control over agriculture.