"Unprecedented" ministerial order to limit the movement of cattle in CyL after the resolution of the Board

VALLADOLID/OVIEDO, 29 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has published the order that limits the movement of cattle in Castilla y León from this Monday, May 29, to avoid jeopardizing the health status of the Spanish and community cattle herd.

The "unprecedented" ministerial order that will remain in force for "the necessary time" until the Board repeals the resolution and restores compliance with community and national regulations establishes "urgent and immediate measures" to prevent the risk of spreading bovine tuberculosis outside the territory of Castilla y León.

As ministerial sources have explained, this order is a "firm response" to the "seriousness of the consequences" that, in his opinion, the resolution published on May 15 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, managed by Vox, which, according to the central government, "seriously fails to comply with Community and Spanish regulations on the eradication and control of bovine tuberculosis (mycobacterium tuberculosis complex)".

In addition to this order, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food presented on May 23 a contentious-administrative appeal in the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León against the autonomous resolution "for establishing a more lax regulatory framework that contravenes the legislation Europe and against the inevitable risk of spreading the disease to new areas, farms and animals".

The Ministry ensures that the application of the Castilla y León resolution puts tuberculosis-free farms in Castilla y León (located in the provinces of Valladolid, León and Burgos, officially declared free of bovine tuberculosis infection by the EC) "and those of the rest of the territory of Spain and the EU".

According to the same sources, additionally the European Commission, after learning of the regional resolution, has urged the Government of Spain to take measures "to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis."

From the Department directed by Luis Planas, they ensure that the regional resolution establishes a "unilateral reduction" of the controls and requirements for the concession, maintenance, suspension, withdrawal and recovery of the status of exploitation free of bovine tuberculosis and allows movements of animals "expressly prohibited " by exempting farms from mandatory movement tests to prevent the disease from spreading.

Added to this is the fact that departures are allowed from farms with suspended or withdrawn sanitary qualification, according to community regulations, to farms classified as free of the disease and that the requirements for farms affected by this infectious animal disease to obtain the certificate are relaxed. bovine tuberculosis free health status.

In this way, to adapt the measures adopted to the risk derived from the application of the resolution, "bovine movements outside Castilla y León will only be allowed if their direct destination is slaughter in a slaughterhouse or, if the destination is other than a slaughterhouse, movement to feedlots will only be allowed under strict health requirements for both the animals and the farms of origin".

The provinces of Burgos, León and Valladolid, which have already been favorably assessed by the European Commission as territories free of tuberculosis, are excluded from the application of these measures and movements from the remaining provinces of Castilla y León to these three provinces They are subject to the same requirements as movements to other autonomous communities.

From the Ministry they remind that the owners of the exploitation, those responsible for the animals and the competent authorities of Castilla y León are obliged to comply with the order published this Monday and warn that infractions are subject to the sanctions established in Law 8 /2003 of animal health.

The Ministry also recalls that Castilla y León has the largest bovine census in Spain and that most of that herd is located in areas with a special incidence of bovine tuberculosis and specifies that "a large number of movements of animals, also in Salamanca there is one of the most important National Markets in the country", circumstances that, due to the recent order of the Board "increases the risk of spreading the disease, with irreversible consequences for the sanitary level and the public health of Castilla y León, but also of other autonomous communities and other countries of the European Union".

Bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex) is a transmissible animal disease that, according to the European Commission, must be controlled in all Member States to achieve its eradication. It is also a zoonotic disease, transmissible to humans "and, therefore, a public health problem," the same sources insist.

In Spain, the areas officially free of bovine tuberculosis are Asturias, the Canary Islands, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Murcia and the Basque Country, and to which the provinces of Valladolid, Burgos and León have recently been added, while the other autonomous communities Among them, Castilla y León have an infection eradication program that is mandatory in accordance with European regulations.

Castilla y León has a regional program included in the 2022-2030 national eradication program approved by European regulation and which is mandatory.