Veterinary state supervision is the work of specialized bodies of the relevant service managing organizations and institutions aimed at preventing animal diseases and preserving livestock products by identifying, preventing and preventing violations of Russian legislation in the field of veterinary medicine.
The concept, essence of state veterinary supervision
The concept of supervision in the field of veterinary medicine includes the following aspects: methods, facilities, officials and bodies that are engaged in this activity. Legislation governing the issue in question is contained in Federal Law “On Veterinary Medicine” No. 4979-1 of May 14, 2003 and acts of other Russian regions.
Veterinary state supervision is the work of management bodies whose purpose is to ensure the safety of animals and livestock products.
Directions of work of regulatory bodies
State veterinary supervision is carried out in the following areas:
- establishing and identifying the conditions and causes of the appearance and spread of mass and infectious diseases in animals;
- the organization of anti-epizootic measures to protect the Russian territory from the introduction of dangerous and contagious animal diseases from other countries, and to monitor the implementation of these procedures;
- development of the rules of regulatory legal acts in the field of veterinary medicine, mandatory for all entities involved in animal husbandry, keeping animals, production (as well as storage, sale, transportation) of relevant products;
- control over the conduct of organizational-production and veterinary-prophylactic types of events by various enterprises, supervision over their observance of veterinary existing rules;
- determination of the procedure for the creation and use in the veterinary sphere of chemical, biological and other drugs;
- special events for the protection of animals from the damaging effects of factors of extreme, man-made, natural nature;
- the implementation of preventive measures to reduce the percentage of violations of the law in the field of veterinary medicine, the application of appropriate sanctions, which are established by legal norms.
Veterinary Supervisory Authorities
The list of management bodies exercising state supervision in the field of veterinary medicine includes the following entities:
- Veterinary Department related to the Russian Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
- All-Russian Research Institute under the Ministry, engaged in the control, standardization and certification of veterinary drugs.
- Central scientific and production and radiological laboratories, area offices that carry out veterinary supervision of transport and the state border.
- Veterinary departments that are part of the executive bodies of power in Russian entities.
- Veterinary departments and offices in the composition of city and district administrations.
- Stations combating diseases in animals, veterinary specialized laboratories in cities, regions and constituent entities of the country.
- Veterinary district hospitals, points, sites.
- Control veterinary transport and border points.
- Expert veterinary and sanitary laboratories in the markets.
- Units carrying out state type supervision at enterprises for the storage and processing of livestock products.
Groups of objects of veterinary control by state authorities
The objects of state veterinary supervision are as follows:
- enterprises, organizations and other legal entities;
- individual entrepreneurs;
- citizens.
These entities are included in the list of objects of supervision if they are involved in the import, export or transit of animals throughout the country, livestock production, keeping animals, slaughtering, processing for meat (meat products), procurement, production, storage, transportation, sale, sale animal products, feeds, additives, medicinal products.
The main content of supervision carried out by state veterinary authorities is the prevention of contagious and non-contagious mass diseases of animals, ensuring the integrity of livestock products through the detection, prevention and suppression of violations of legislation in the field of veterinary medicine.
Objects of state veterinary supervision
The immediate objects of control are the following:
- Enterprises for the production of milk, meat, eggs on an industrial scale.
- Subsistence farms and farms of fish farming, fur farming, beekeeping type.
- Farm (peasant) farms and personal subsidiary farms of citizens.
- Meat processing plants, fish processing plants, dairies, cold storage plants and other enterprises for the storage and processing of livestock products.
- Enterprises for the procurement, trade in bazaars, markets, exhibitions, fairs and other places of trade.
- Ships for the extraction (fishing) of seafood and fish.
- Smelters and other fish processing enterprises and organizations producing fish-type flour and other seafood feeds.
- Biological factories and combines.
- Research and experimental production workshops, enterprises and biological supply bases.
- Veterinary pharmacies and other organizations involved in the production, storage and sale of technical preparations and means for veterinary use.
- Combines, factories and other enterprises producing feed and feed additives.
- Railway and automobile stations, railway stations, river and sea ports, airfields, airports.
- Other specially equipped places for citizens, vehicles, livestock products and animals to pass through the state border.
- The main railway, automobile and river domestic directions in which animals and livestock products are transported, and their routes.
- Naval bases, airfields, other points of reception of military transport vehicles, army food depots and bases, trading enterprises, utility and hunting enterprises.
The following processes are controlled at these facilities:
- sanitary and veterinary certification of quality, production and safety of feed and additives, their certification, safety of animal products used in food;
- the procedure for the purchase, use, deposit of strains and forms of microorganisms for the purpose of scientific research;
- import and export of infectious-type pathogens in animals and vaccine strains that contain live microorganisms outside the country;
- practical work of specialists in the veterinary field.
The Regulation on state veterinary supervision states that these bodies build, improve, reconstruct and commission the following facilities:
- Biological type factories and other enterprises producing vaccines and other means that contribute to the protection of animals from diseases.
- Livestock complexes.
- Refrigeration plants.
- Meat processing plants.
- Other enterprises manufacturing and processing relevant products.
Objectives and types of regulatory activities
According to the provisions of the Regulation on State Veterinary Supervision, the purpose of the control activities of these bodies is the implementation of veterinary rules in the development and construction of specialized farms and enterprises.
Control and supervisory measures include the study and coordination of technological standards for designing these facilities with federal standards, conducting an expert examination of the veterinary type, issuing final conclusions on documentation for buildings, allotted land for this purpose, and operating facilities.
Inspections at facilities are carried out by inspectors of specialized departments of state veterinary supervision. The types and operating procedures of control bodies are determined in acts, resolutions, protocols, and instructions of the relevant bodies issued on the basis of instructions from the veterinary department.
Veterinary Control Officers
State veterinary supervision at the state border and within the country is carried out by the following entities:
- Russian veterinary state inspector, deputies;
- inspectors in the republics, deputies;
- Heads of veterinary departments of regional administrations, deputies;
- chief veterinary state inspectors of cities and regions, deputies;
- inspectors of zonal-type departments on transport and border, deputies;
- Heads of city, regional, regional stations and laboratories of the veterinary type involved in the fight against animal diseases, their deputies;
- directors of veterinary district hospitals, sites, points serving the respective territories.
Procedure for appealing against decisions of officials of the veterinary public service
Actions and decisions of bodies of state veterinary supervision on the state border and on the territory of the country may be appealed within one month from the moment of issuing the relevant act, as well as the commission of an action (or inaction).
The complainant has the right to file a complaint with a superior veterinary state chief inspector. In relation to senior managers, a complaint can be filed with the court. Officials of the veterinary public service of the country are liable for the improper performance (or non-performance) of the functions and tasks assigned to them.
Responsibilities of Veterinary Public Service Officials
The implementation of state veterinary supervision includes two key responsibilities of officials of the relevant entities:
- The use of their powers in a timely manner in full in order to detect, prevent, suppress veterinary offenses in this area.
- Non-disclosure of information that constitutes a commercial, military, state secret of official or other nature in the process of implementing control measures.
Inspectors carrying out state veterinary supervision in the Russian Federation, when taking measures to monitor compliance with legislation in this area, wear a special form.
Any attempts to influence the employees of the bodies carrying out veterinary supervision, which will impede the performance of official duties or will be considered an interference in their work, are prohibited.
The procedure for the exercise of authority by these officials is determined in the Regulation approved by the Russian Government. Specialists who carry out their duties are under state protection.
Officials who carry out state veterinary supervision in the Russian Federation, who live and work in settlements of a working or urban type, villages, cities, are entitled to receive utility services free of charge and other benefits in accordance with Russian law.
After employees who have worked in rural areas for more than nine years and continue to live there, retire, they retain the right to receive utilities for free.
Methods of veterinary control
Federal state veterinary supervision is provided from the normative and methodological side by implementing the following actions:
- development, approval, review, implementation of the rules relating to the conduct of activities within the framework of veterinary supervision;
- creation of documents reflecting the procedure for carrying out examinations of the veterinary-sanitary type;
- certification research and testing;
- investigations;
- systematization and registration of the rules established by documents of the veterinary type;
- maintaining and forming a federal level base with regulatory information.
Executive authorities that carry out state veterinary supervision and control shall enforce veterinary rules. These documents, together with the procedure and methods for conducting examinations of the veterinary-sanitary type, research, investigations, certification tests, are subject to registration and publication in an official manner.
The procedure for issuing regulatory legal acts is established by the Russian Government. Federal departments of management in the field of veterinary medicine carry out registration and systematization of federal databases to provide regulatory and methodological bodies of the Russian state veterinary supervision.
Russian veterinary legislation regulates legal relations in the field of protecting animals from diseases, livestock products from spoilage and the population from the spread of epidemics and infectious (mass) diseases that are dangerous for animals and people. The powers of authorized bodies exercising supervision and control are regulated by the relevant regulatory legal acts issued by the Russian Government.