Animal Husbandry Law of the People's Republic of China (2022).

This Law is enacted with a view to regulating the production and business operation of animal husbandry, ensuring the supply and quality safety of livestock and poultry products, protecting and rationally utilizing the genetic resources of livestock and poultry, cultivating and popularizing fine varieties of livestock and poultry, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of livestock producers and business operators, preventing public health risks, and promoting the high-quality development of animal husbandry. The Law consists of 94 Articles divided into 10 Chapters : General provisions (I); Protection of the genetic resources of livestock and poultry (II); Selection, production and business operation of species of breeding livestock and poultry (III); Breeding of livestock and poultry (IV); Grassland Animal Husbandry (V); Trading and transport of livestock and poultry (VI); Livestock and Poultry Slaughter (VII); Quality and safety guarantee (VIII); Legal liabilities (IX); Supplementary provisions (X). A National Commission for the Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources shall be established by the competent agriculture and rural areas authority of the State Council and shall be responsible for the appraisal and evaluation of genetic resources of livestock and poultry. A permit for the production and business operation of breeding livestock and poultry, and of ova, frozen sperms, embryos and other genetic materials shall be obtained as specified in articles 24 to 28. Those who apply for import of breeding livestock and poultry shall hold the production and business operation permit of breeding livestock and poultry. The introduction, breeding, testing, approval and promotion of genetically modified livestock and poultry varieties shall comply with the national regulations on the safety management of agricultural genetically modified organisms. The State Council and the provincial people’s governments shall arrange the fine breed subsidies and other funds for supporting the stockbreeding development, to support the livestock and poultry breeders to buy fine breeds of livestock and poultry, improve the production facilities, expand the breeding scale, etc. The transport of livestock and poultry shall meet the animal disease prevention requirements. A stockbreeding and veterinary administrative department shall make a plan on the supervision and inspection over the quality and safety of livestock and poultry.
According to Article 17, the state shall have sovereignty over livestock and poultry genetic resources. Where any livestock or poultry genetic resource included in the protection list is to be exported from China or is to be researched and utilized within China in cooperation with any foreign institution or individual, the applicant shall file an application with the agriculture and rural affairs department of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government and shall simultaneously put forward a plan on sharing the benefits with China. The agriculture and rural affairs department that accepts the application shall, upon examination, submit them to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the State Council for approval.
In pastoral areas, the State supports to carry out basic grassland construction, optimize herd structure, improve livestock varieties, and change the mode of production, including rotational grazing so as to gradually realize cattle-forage balance and improve the grassland ecological environment.