Animal Health Act: Prevention of animal diseases

The Animal Health Act of 2011 provides for the prevention, detection and control of animal disease and the maintenance and improvement of animal health.



The Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) is responsible for the administration of the Act, assisted by veterinary officials. The responsibilities of veterinary officials include the detection and investigation of disease, the prevention of disease, the controlling of disease, the surveillance of disease, and, if appropriate, the eradication of disease and ascertaining whether the provisions of the Act have been or are being complied with and determining whether a person may have contravened any provision of the Act and such other functions as are assigned to a veterinary official by or under that Act.



Disease is defined as a disease that affects or may affect an animal or that may be transmitted by an animal to a person and an infectious agent. Infectious agent means any bacterium, virus, prion, fungus, parasite, pest or other organism or infectious substance that may cause or transmit disease in animals and any other thing declared under paragraph (c) of subsection (2) to be an infectious agent. Animal is defined as to mean any member of the animal kingdom (other than a human), whether alive or dead, including:



(a) any mammal, bird, fish, shellfish or reptile;

(b) any invertebrate declared under paragraph (a) of subsection (2) to be an animal, while animal product means

- the carcass or part of the carcass of an animal;

- meat, blood, hide, skin, hair, wool, feather, shell, horn, fin, hoof or any part of the viscera of an animal;

- fat, milk, whey, cream, butter, cheese, eggs, or other food or foodstuffs derived from an animal;

- the sperm, ova or embryo of an animal;

- any secretion or excretion of an animal;

- honey or other products from honey bees; and

- any other thing declared under paragraph (b) of subsection (2) to be an animal product.



Various sections of the Act deal with:

- permits for the importation of animals, animal products and restricted material for entry into Namibia.

- permits for the importation of animals, animal products and restricted material for conveyance in transit through Namibia.

- a notice to be given and a health certificate to be obtained before import; [Health certificate is defined in Section 1 of the Act as to mean a health certificate conforming to the format of the appropriate model certificate of the World Organisation for Animal Health].

- animal, animal product or restricted material imported contrary to that Act or presenting a risk.

- border security in emergency, and it provides, amongst others, for the issuing by the CVO of an emergency restriction notice if the CVO, or any other veterinary official, reasonably suspects that there is an immediate risk of a disease being introduced into or further spread in Namibia from another country.

- quarantine stations;

- with health certificates required for exportation of animals, animal products and restricted material and export in contravention of that Act.

- duties of owners of animals on the discovery of an incidence of animal disease.

- the treatment or disposal of an infected animal, animal product or restricted material.

- the declaration of an infected place, a quarantine area, a control area, a protected area.

- the construction by the CVO of fences with gates, grids or other passages:

? on any land situated along the international boundaries of Namibia to prevent the straying of animals into or out of Namibia;

? along the boundaries of any game park or private game reserve established by or under the laws relating to nature conservation to prevent the movement of animals into or out of the park or reserve;

? along, on or across public or private roads, or along the boundaries of, or on or across any land for the purpose of controlling animal disease.

- straying animals.



The animal health regulations promulgated by Government Notice No. 358 of 28 December 2018 contain, among others, provisions relating to diseases and notifiable diseases and provide expressly that the notification of a notifiable disease by the owner of an animal as contemplated in Section 15(1)(b) of the Act must be made to a veterinary official or a police officer. (Notifiable disease is any disease that has been declared under paragraph (e) of subsection 1(2) of the Act to be a notifiable disease.)

Part 10 of the regulations contains provisions relating to various disease, such as Newcastle disease, sarcoptic mange, rabies, sheep scab, African swine fever, trypanosomiasis (nagana), anthrax, brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, foot and mouth disease, tick-borne diseases, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, classifcal swine fever (hog cholera), lumpy skin disease, equine viral arteritis, paratuberculosis (Johne’s disease), glanders, scrapie, wine vesicular disease, exotic disease not yet diagnosed in Namibia, salmonella enteridis, avian influenza, bluetongue, Afican horse sickness, Aujesky’s disease (pseudorabies), dourine (trypanosoma equiperdum), equien infectious anaemia, rift valley fever, rinderpest, psittacosis (parrot fever, avian chlamydiosis or ornithosis), malignant catarrhal fever (malignant head catarrh, snotsiekte, catarrhal fever, gangrenous coryza), contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (lung sickness).



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