Animal Diseases Regulations (Poultry Abattoirs), 1960

ANIMAL DISEASES REGULATIONS (POULTRY ABATTOIRS), 5720-1960 By virtue of the power vested in me under Section 20 of the Animal Diseases Ordinance, 1945 and Sections 14(a) and 2(d) of the Government and Law Arrangements Ordinance 5708-1948 I hereby enact these Regulations: 1. Definitions: In these Regulations "Poultry" - chicken, goose, duck, turkey, pigeon, guinea fowl, quail and pheasant - any kind of age; "Poultry meat" - carcass of poultry or any part thereof, including organs intended for human consumption; "Internal organs" - liver, heart, gizzard, spleen; "Internal Parts" - crop, intestines, lungs and internal organs; "Abattoir" - a place in which the following is carried out: slaughter of poultry, plucking of feathers of slaughtered poultry, removal of organs and ancillary acts. "Handling capacity" - in regard to an abattoir - the maximum number of poultry which, in the opinion of the Director, it is possible to slaughter in one day in that abattoir; "Ancillary acts" - removing those parts of the body and organs of plucked carcass which are not for consumption, salting, cutting up the flesh of the poultry into sections and pieces, wrapping it, refrigerating it and freezing it, all for its preparation for sale. "The Director" - The Director of the Veterinary Services or a person empowered by him or her for the purpose of all or some of these Regulations; "The Maximum level" - the maximum permitted level of biological residues in poultry meat as specified in a schedule determined by the Director of the Veterinary Services, with the approval of the Director of Food Services in the Ministry of Health, as updated from time to time, and deposited for public perusal in the library of the Veterinary Institute at Bet Dagan; "The Veterinarian" - in regard to an abattoir - the veterinarian of the local authority in whose area the abattoir is situated, or any other veterinarian approved by the Director for the carrying out of veterinary supervision of the abattoir. "Biological Residues" - any substance, including its derivatives, existing in poultry at the time of, or after, its slaughter, in one of its tissues or organs, resulting from its treatment by, or contact with, any pest control, organic, inorganic or metallic substances, hormones, antibiotics, anthelmintics, tranquillisers, or any other substance which leaves traces in poultry meat. 2. Authorisation to Operate an Abattoir: (a) No person shall operate an abattoir except in accordance with the written authorisation of the Director and in accordance with the conditions of such authorisation. (b) The granting of, or the refusal to grant, an authorisation, determination of its conditions, its suspension and its cancellation are at the discretion of the Director. 3. Application for the Authorisation for Abattoir: A person applying for authorisation under Regulation 2 shall lodge with the Director a written application together with a plan showing the building and equipment of the abattoir. 4. Conditions of Authorisation: The Director shall specify, in the conditions of the authorisation for an abattoir, the buildings and equipment it must comprise and its Handling Capacity. 5. Employment of Workers in Abattoir: The owner of an abattoir shall employ in it a sufficient number of workers to enable the abattoir to be run in conditions suitable to the proper carrying out of the work. 6. Maintenance of Abattoir: The owner of an abattoir shall maintain the same, including the equipment therein, in a fit condition enabling regular work to be carried out in proper sanitary conditions. 7. Directions of the Veterinarian: The Veterinarian may direct the owner of an abattoir to carry out acts, within a specified period, for the performance of the obligations under Regulations 5 and 6. 8. Appeal: The owner of the abattoir may appeal against the directions of the Veterinarian under Regulation 7 and the Director within 7 days after they are delivered. 9. Examination of Fowls and Carcasses: Poultry brought to the abattoir shall be examined therein prior to slaughter and thereafter by the Veterinarian in accordance with the provisions of the First Schedule hereto. 10. Transfer of Poultry and Carcasses to Laboratory: The Veterinarian may transfer poultry and carcasses of poultry for a laboratory examination at the expense of the owner. 11. Decision of the Veterinarian after Examination: The Veterinarian may disqualify for slaughter poultry infected with a disease and likewise he or she may approve or declare unfit for consumption slaughtered poultry, in whole or in part, in accordance with the provisions of the Second Schedule hereto. 12. Impression of Seal or other Mark: Carcasses of poultry, or parts of them, passed by the Veterinarian for consumption, shall be marked by the seal or other mark of the abattoir, approved by the Director. 13. Poultry or Carcasses Declared Unfit: Poultry, carcasses of poultry or parts of them declared unfit by the Veterinarian shall be destroyed in a special installation in accordance with the instructions of the Veterinarian, or of an Inspector of abattoirs appointed under Regulation 23, and under his or her supervision. 14. Payment of Compensation: No compensation shall be paid in respect of poultry or carcasses of poultry or parts thereof destroyed under Regulation 13. 15. Use of Intestines and the Like for Animal Food: No person shall use the intestines or sex organs of poultry, or the contents of its crop or stomach for feeding animals unless they have undergone a process of sterilisation or boiling under the supervision of the Veterinarian in accordance with the directions of the Director. 16. Days and Hours for Slaughter: The days and the hours for the slaughter of poultry shall be determined (1) by the local authority in whose area the abattoir is situated; (2) by the Director, if the abattoir is not situated in the area of a local authority. 17. Disposal of feathers: The feather of poultry, which have been slaughtered in the abattoir shall be collected in a special closed area or room within the abattoir and shall be dealt with in accordance with the directions of the Veterinarian. 18. Delivery of poultry to Abattoir: Five or more poultry shall not be delivered to an abattoir except in cages approved for such purpose by the Director. 18a. Cleaning and Disinfecting Cages: (1) No cage shall be removed from the premises of an abattoir except after it has been washed in a detergent solution applied by steam under pressure and has been disinfected with a disinfectant substance approved by the Director. (2) The washing and the disinfecting shall be carried out by a method, and installations, approved for that purpose by the Director. 19. Transport of Poultry Meat: (a) Poultry meat shall not be transported from an abattoir unless in rustproof metal containers or in any other container approved by the Director. (b) Poultry meat shall not be taken out of the premises of an abattoir except in a vehicle designated only for the transportation of poultry meat and the container space is enclosed on all sides by insulated walls filled with cork to a thickness of 8 centimetres at least, or with other material having similar insulating qualities (hereinafter - vehicle for the transport of poultry meat). 19a. Veterinary Certificate: Poultry meat shall not be taken out of the premises of an abattoir unless there is attached to it a certificate, in a form approved by the Director, signed by the Veterinarian of the abattoir. 20. General Directions of the Director: The Director may issue directions to Veterinarians relating to the discharge of their duties in abattoirs under these Regulations. 21. Reports by Veterinarian: The Director may require reports from Veterinarians on the discharge of their duties in abattoirs and everything concerned therewith. 22. Reports by Abattoir Owner: The owner of an abattoir shall, if so required by the Director, deliver to him or her reports on the activities of the abattoir. 23. Appointment of Inspector: The Director may appoint an inspector for an abattoir and require the owner to bear the cost of the Inspector's employment. 24. Duties of Inspector: An Inspector appointed as provided in Regulation 23 shall discharge his or her duties in accordance with the instructions of the Veterinarian. 25. Cessation of Activities: The Director may, in consultation with the Director General of the Ministry of Health and the district Commissioner, order in writing the cessation of activity in an abattoir for such period as he or she shall direct, if any of these Regulations, or any direction given under them in respect of the said abattoir has not been observed. 26. Appeals Committee: The Minister of Agriculture shall appoint an Appeals Committee of three, one of whom being the chairman, for the purposes of these Regulations. 27. Right of Appeal: A person prejudiced by a decision of the Director under Regulations 23 and 25 may appeal to the Appeals Committee within 30 days of the day of the notification of the decision. The Committee shall give its decision within 30 days of the lodging of the appeal. 28. Stay of Execution: The Lodging of an appeal shall not stay the carrying out of the decision. 29. Slaughter of Poultry: No person shall slaughter, nor permit the slaughter of, poultry, nor pluck slaughtered poultry engage in any ancillary acts, outside abattoir premises; this provision shall not apply to the slaughter of the poultry for one's own use. 30. Sale of Poultry Meat: No person shall sell poultry meat, nor shall he or she manufacture therefrom any edible product, including conserves, unless the meat bears the seal or mark of the abattoir under Regulation 12. 31. Transitional Provision in Respect of Existing Abattoirs: The provisions of Regulations 2 and 3 shall not apply to an abattoir operated for the first time prior to the date of publication of these Regulations (hereinafter - an existing abattoir) for 30 days from the date of the commencement of these Regulations. 32. Authorisation for Existing Abattoir: The Director shall not refuse to grant an authorisation under these Regulations for an existing abattoir, in accordance with an application lodged within 15 days from the date of the commencement of these Regulations, but he or she may include in it conditions, inclusive conditions relating to the Handling Capacity of the abattoir. 33. Saving other Laws: These Regulations shall not derogate from the provisions of any other law. 34. Commencement: The date of the commencement of these Regulations is 30 days after their publication in the Reshumot. FIRST SCHEDULE (Regulations 9 and 21: Provisions Regarding Examination of Poultry Prior to Slaughter and thereafter and in Regard to Report) 1. Examination of the poultry prior to slaughter shall be carried out by the Veterinarian or Inspector on the day of slaughter, by the light of day, if adequate, or by sufficient artificial light. 2. The poultry shall be examined as to its state of health, including its physical condition and external appearance. 3. The Veterinarian or the Inspector shall forbid the slaughter of poultry showing signs of a disease specified in the Second Schedule hereto; such poultry shall be destroyed in accordance with the directions of the Director. 4. The Veterinarian shall without delay notify the district State Veterinary Officer for poultry diseases, of the disease that he or she has discovered or suspects, and shall ensure that the whole flock affected by the disease, or suspected of infection, shall be held in quarantine in a place isolated from any place in which any other poultry are held within the abattoir. 5. If it is known to the Veterinarian that there are grounds to suspect that a flock of poultry has been delivered for slaughter after treatment by, or contact with, a substance likely to leave biological residues in the slaughtered poultry, he or she shall direct that the flock be returned to its owner, or that it be held, after slaughter, until a final decision is taken in the light of laboratory tests, or that it be destroyed. 6. The examination after slaughter shall be carried out following opening of the carcass and the taking out of the inner parts so that the whole of the interior of the carcass, including internal organs, are exposed for visual examination by the Veterinarian or Inspector and in such a way as allows them to be handled. 7. If signs of disease or blemishes as specified in the Second Schedule hereto, are found in the carcasses of poultry, or in parts of them, they shall be dealt with as therein provided in respect of each blemish or disease. 8. The Veterinarian shall record each flock as it is delivered for slaughter and shall file with the Director, once per month, a report on everything related to the slaughter of the poultry; the report shall detail the flocks, and the farms on which they were grown. The number of poultry in the flock, its overall weight, the number of poultry declared unfit before and after slaughter, and the reasons for their being so declared, in percentages. SECOND SCHEDULE (Regulation 11: Provisions Relating to Declaring Slaughtered Poultry Fit or Unfit) 1. In this Schedule "Total unfitness" - declaration of the poultry or of its meat as unfit; "Partial unfitness" - declaration as unfit of part of the meat of the poultry showing signs of disease or blemishes 2. If there should be discovered in poultry the undermentioned blemishes or diseases, the following provisions shall apply: (1) Tuberculosis - total unfitness; (2) Leucosis in all its form - total unfitness; (3) Septicaemia or toxaemia - total unfitness; (4) Signs of flesh or internal organs of a slaughtered poultry of a disease, the aetiological causes of which, or the toxins which they manufacture are likely to endanger human health - total unfitness; (5) Pasteurellosis (a) In cases of generalised infections, the meat of the poultry shall be sterilised by a method and in an institute approved by the Director for the carrying out of sterilisation, permit in writing the use of the meat of the poultry for such purposes as he or she shall determine. (b) In cases of localised infections - partial unfitness: all infected organs and parts unfit; (6) Chronic Respiratory Disease (a) With signs of septiceamia or toxaemia - total unfitness; (b) In the absence of signs of septiceamia or toxaemia - partial unfitness: all infected organs and parts - unfit; (7) Inflammations - partial unfitness of internal organs and parts of body displaying such processes and total unfitness if systematic inflammatory processes are covered. (8) Tumours - every part of the body affected by a tumour - shall be declared unfit; if signs of the spread of tumours are discovered - total unfitness; (9) Parasites - every part of the carcass infected or contaminated by parasites or showing signs of pathological changes caused by parasites - shall be declared unfit; (10) Sores and injuries - any part affected shall be declared unfit; if there are sores or injuries to more than one part - total unfitness; parts of a slaughtered poultry showing signs of light bruising from injury shall be passed as fit for human consumption; (11) Death from any causes other than slaughter - total unfitness; (12) Pollution - carcasses polluted by oils, paints, poisons, or other external pollutants - total unfitness; Poultry meat or internal organs contaminated accidentally during processing partial unfitness; (13) Serious burns - total unfitness, but the Director may permit in writing the use of the carcasses for such purposes as he or she shall direct; (14) Bone fractures - partial unfitness; (15) Decay resulting from changes after slaughter - total unfitness, but if the changes are only superficial and without signs of fermentation causing a bad odour - partial unfitness; (16) Poultry meat which is affected by disease, atrophied, blemished, spoilt, rotten, soiled, smelling, has been manufactured in unsanitary conditions, contains toxic or degenerated substances or colouring likely to damage human health, or is wrapped in a wrapping likely to damage human health - total unfitness; (17) General atrophy - total unfitness, but the Director may permit in writing the use of the carcasses for such purposes as he or she shall direct, excluding for human consumption; (18) Biological residues - poultry meat in which biological residues above the maximum level are found - total unfitness.