STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR ANIMAL QUARANTINE IN INDIA
The word has its origin in Latin language word “quarantena” which means “forty days period”. During the period 1348 to 1359 to prevent the spread of black death which killed around 30% of Asian and European population, people coming from outside were kept at the entrance of the city for 30 days (trentine) which was later increased to 40 days (quarantine) to observe that they don’t develop the symptoms of disease and then only they were allowed to enter the city. The practice of quarantine since then is very common in human as well as in animals. The purpose of quarantine in animals is to segregate the suspected animals from the healthy stock till appropriate time so that disease could not be transmitted to healthy animals inadvertently. It is very mandatory during the new purchase of animals or immediately after the transport of animals from one place to other. It is important to remember that although its literal meaning is forty days alienation, the time to keep animals in isolation depends on incubation period of pathogen involved in the diseases. For example, the quarantine time for FMD infected animals is 21 to 28 days. Sometimes quarantine is done for cases where we know that animal is suffering with communicable disease but they can recover from the disease after some care and medication. Keeping such animals in quarantine prevents their contact with other healthy animals and thus stops further transmission of infection. Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) is a very common disease of dairy animals which is caused by virus. Saliva, hooves and skin of suffering animals is usually loaded with virus. In controlling an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease it is important to reduce as much as possible the risks of transmission of virus from one premise to another during animal movement. Wind also spreads these viruses. So during outbreak of FMD it is essential that suspected as well as suffering animals should be quarantined. It is advised that in the event of an outbreak, an immediate total 72-hour ban on movements on or off farms within the 10 km area around an infected premises should be imposed (except for genuine emergencies), to allow initial epidemiological tracings to be carried out. In case of dairy animals quarantine is strictly followed with regard to FMD, particularly, when animals are moved from one place to other or from one country to other.
Quarantine is usually applied
• To animals prior to import to an FMD-free country
• To animals prior to entry onto farms of high disease security
• To animals migrating through regions attempting to control FMD
• Within farms in endemic areas to separate infected from susceptible stock.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR ANIMAL QUARANTINE & CERTIFICATION IN INDIA CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM HERE:
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES FOR ANIMAL QUARANTINE & CERTIFICATION SERVICES
https://dahd.nic.in/sites/default/filess/SOPs_updated.pdf
