UPDATED 4 SEPTEMBER
The updated list of Susceptible and Vector Species has now been published with an implementation date set for 10 September 2024. From this date, these species can only be imported from countries declared free of the disease which means the competent veterinary office in the country of export needs to say they are disease free on the export health certificate.
The background
The Government maintains a list of species that are susceptible or vectors for certain notifiable aquatic diseases which they control in the UK (eg SVC). These are the species on the Susceptible and Vector Species (SVS) list.
This means that any imports of the species on that list must be accompanied with a health certificate that states that the species are free of notifiable diseases and come from a disease-free country or zone. This has been the case for species like Koi and Goldfish for SVC for some time. Unless otherwise stated, these controls only apply to species on the list, not whole genuses i.e. the control is on Zebra Danios, not all species of Danio. Sub-species, colour variants or hybrids of listed species are also subject to the controls eg leopard danios.
The Government recently updated the SVS list in line with recent research on species. As such there are some species that now need the ‘disease-free declaration’ and will need to come from disease-free areas, when they didn’t before, such as zebra danios and rice fish for VHS and SVC. However, not all countries are able to maintain a disease-free status for all notifiable diseases and so cannot meet certification requirements in terms of those diseases. Importers should seek to ascertain if disease free requirements can be met by their source countries.
This may mean importers will have to source some species from different countries depending on where they already source.
The Fish Health Inspectorate has produced this guidance for the ornamental aquatics industry
