Home » ANIMAL BIOSECURITY » Animal Imports » Hazard Identification

Hazard Identification

Article 2.2.2.

Hazard identification involves identifying the pathogenic agents that could potentially produce adverse consequences associated with the importation of a commodity .

The hazards identified would be those appropriate to the species being imported, or from which the commodity is derived, and which may be present in the exporting country . It is then necessary to identify whether each hazard is already present in the importing country, and whether it is an OIE listed disease or is subject to control or eradication in that country and to ensure that import measures are not more trade restrictive than those applied within the country.

Hazard identification is a categorisation step, identifying biological agents dichotomously as hazards or not hazard s. The risk assessment should be concluded if hazard identification fails to identify hazards associated with the importation.

The evaluation of the Aquatic Animal Health Services, surveillance and control programmes, and zoning and regionalisation systems are important inputs for assessing the likelihood of hazards being present in the aquatic animal population of the exporting country.

An importing country may decide to permit the importation using the appropriate sanitary standards recommended in the Aquatic Code, thus eliminating the need for a risk assessment.

Copyright © 2024. Pacific Community.