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ARCHIVE: Biosecurity at Markets and Shows

Good standards of biosecurity on farms, in markets and shows and on livestock vehicles must be maintained to reduce the risk of spread of disease.

Biosecurity at animal gatherings

An gathering is when animals are brought together for one or more of the following purposes

(a) a sale, show or exhibition,

(b) onward consignment within Great Britain, or

(c) inspection to confirm the animals possess specific breed characteristics.

These events are typically held on market premises or are livestock shows.  There are some collection centres on farms.  If you plan to hold such an event, you will need a licence issued by Animal Health. 

The animal gatherings biosecurity regime

A new biosecurity regime comes into operation on 18 March 2010.  A simpler and more proportionate regime has now been devised with industry and delivery partners. While the risks of undisclosed disease spreading remains the same as before the methods of mitigating and dealing with those risks have been subject to a comprehensive review. The new regime still mitigates those risks to the same extent, but responsibility for some biosecurity measures has now been handed over the industry for them to oversee. Enforcement authorities can still take action if there is a biosecurity risk at a gathering.

The new regime consists of:

1.  The Animal Gatherings (England) Order 2010 which provides for the licence and lays down certain rules including cleansing and disinfection and the time a premises can be open to hold a gathering.

2.  Guidance on best practice promoted by those who organise livestock markets and shows (PDF 20KB) together with those who use them.

3.  Finally, there is the licence application, the premises application, the disease contingency plan and the AGO Implementation Plan which is completed by each licensee and agreed with Animal Health to say how the licence conditions will be implemented on each licensed premises. Copies of these documents will be available from Animal Health.

The risk of transmission of disease on occasions when animals are gathered from different places is high. Those who organise gatherings and those who attend them must observe the basic principle of "clean on, clean off ".  The regime including the guidance on best practice ensures that the “clean on, clean off” principle can be achieved.

All licensed premises must have a biosecurity officer whose job is to make sure that the risk of disease being brought onto the premises, transmitted within the premises or taken off the premises is minimised.

If you take animals to a show, please follow the instructions the show organisers and the biosecurity officer give you.

If you bring a livestock vehicle onto a market premises and it is not practicable to cleanse and disinfect your vehicle on site, you must complete a declaration to say where you will take your vehicle for cleansing and disinfection. You must give the declaration to the market operator. If you break the rules on cleansing and disinfection of livestock vehicles you will be committing an offence under the Transport of Animals (Cleansing and Disinfection) (England) (No. 3) Order 2003.

You may be prosecuted if you break the law.

Further information

Page last modified: March 19, 2010