Improve Quality and Strengthen Capacity, with a Focus on the "Three Safeties"

In the first half of this year, veterinary departments at all levels closely focused on the goal and task of “striving to ensure that no regional major animal epidemic occurs and no major animal product quality and safety incident occurs,” worked hard to improve the capacity to safeguard the safety of livestock and poultry production, the quality and safety of animal products, and public health security, and veterinary work achieved positive results.

As of the end of June, no outbreaks of Asia I type and highly pathogenic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome had occurred nationwide; 1 newly occurring type O foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, 1 type A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, and 3 poultry H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks were rapidly stamped out, and the newly introduced peste des petits ruminants outbreak was brought under stable control. From January to May, nationwide animal quarantine at the place of origin covered 4.299 billion head (animals, birds), and slaughter quarantine covered 2.366 billion head (animals, birds); all diseased animals detected were subjected to harmless treatment. In the first quarter of 2014, a total of 2,430 batches of veterinary drugs were supervised and sampled, of which 2,323 batches were qualified, a qualification rate of 95.6%, up 2.5 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2013. At the 82nd International Congress of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which concluded at the end of May, China was recognized by the OIE as a country with negligible risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and a country free of African horse sickness.

In the first half of the year, the national veterinary system vigorously organized and implemented the 2014 national compulsory immunization plan, monitoring, and epidemiological investigation for major animal diseases, and effectively prevented and controlled the animal H7N9 influenza outbreak and common and frequently occurring diseases such as piglet diarrhea. It carried out pilot projects for the harmless treatment of dead animals in depth, promoted the issuance of the “Opinions on Establishing a Long-term Mechanism for the Harmless Treatment of Dead Animals,” and launched the “National Animal Health Supervision ‘Improve Quality and Strengthen Capacity’ Action.” It strengthened veterinary health supervision and law enforcement, included cracking down on illegal private slaughtering in the 2014 national special rectification plan for agricultural product quality and safety, and strengthened supervision of more than 1.24 million large-scale farms (breeding communities) and nearly 15,000 slaughterhouses (slaughtering plants). It carried out the “Creation of a Veterinary Health Traceability Supervision System for the Entire Chain from Breeding to Slaughter,” using information technology to control key risk points. It implemented the “Measures for the Administration of Prescription and Non-prescription Veterinary Drugs,” deepened “linkage between inspection and enforcement,” severely cracked down on illegal acts involving veterinary drugs, carried out actions to standardize veterinary drug product labels and instructions, earnestly implemented the announcement on heavier penalties, circulated typical cases of illegal acts involving veterinary drugs, and focused on veterinary drug supervision and law enforcement work. In accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture, all localities implemented the main responsibility of pig slaughtering enterprises, strengthened quality and safety risk assessment for pig slaughtering, and improved the quality and safety supervision mechanism of the slaughtering industry. Through the joint efforts of the broad ranks of cadres and employees in the veterinary system, China's veterinary health risk management capacity across the entire chain from breeding to slaughter was further strengthened, laying a solid foundation for completing the year's veterinary industry goals and tasks.