Livestock Disease Control Act 1994.

This Act provides for the prevention, monitoring and control of livestock diseases and for the compensation for losses caused by certain livestock diseases. Livestock means any non-human animal, and any fish or bird, whether wild or domesticated, egg intended for hatching or bee. The objectives of the Act include: protect public health by preventing, monitoring and controlling diseases transmissible from livestock to humans; to protect domestic and export markets for livestock and livestock products by preventing, monitoring and controlling livestock diseases; to provide for the preventing, monitoring and eradication of exotic livestock diseases and to facilitate the operation of livestock identification and tracking programs for disease and residue control and market access (sect. 4). The Act consists of 149 sections and is divided into the following parts: Preliminary (1); Provisions applying to diseases generally (2); Exotic diseases (3); Provisions for particular livestock (4); Compensation (5); Duty and records (6); Administration (7); Enforcement (8); Regulations (9) and Repeals, amendments and transitional provisions (10).
The Act contains several principles and provisions that contribute to the food safety and quality legislation, including one of the Act's objectives that is protect public health by preventing, monitoring and controlling diseases transmissible from livestock to humans. Firstly the Act empowers the Governor in Council to make orders that prohibits importing, transporting, selling or handling livestock products that have been declared infected; the Act also recognizes responsibilities of owners and others for diseases affecting livestock products establishing duties and penalties (e.g. notification, separation of livestock products). Section 45 for instance establishes a prohibition of use of cow, goat, sheep or buffalo for dairying if an inspector is of the opinion that would be deleterious to the health of human beings or unfit for human consumption