Act on animal health (Journal of Laws 2025 Pos. 1795).

This Act comprehensively regulates the organization, responsibilities, and procedures for animal health, disease prevention and control, and the management of animal by-products in Poland, in alignment with EU law. It designates the competent veterinary authorities and sets general obligations for operators and pet owners to ensure biosecurity, hygiene, and disease prevention. It also integrates the national administrative procedure framework and specifies when and how applications, notifications and information must be submitted to veterinary authorities. A central part of the Act concerns disease notification, surveillance, monitoring and control. The present Act establishes a national system for collecting, storing, analysing and transmitting data on listed diseases, zoonotic agents and antimicrobial resistance, including structured information flows from veterinary practices and laboratories up to the Chief Veterinary Officer, who in turn reports to the European Commission, other Member States and international organizations. The Act provides for compulsory control testing, national surveillance concepts and Union surveillance programmes, eradication and control programmes. It sets out the catalogue of individual and area-based disease control measures (including movement restrictions, culling, disinfection, sanitary hunting, carcass collection and disposal), the conditions for establishing and lifting restricted zones, and the use of emergency and additional measures in special epidemiological circumstances. The Act allows the use of veterinary drugs as measures to prevent or control listed animal diseases, with such use requiring decisions by the competent authorities and, in some cases, prior approval by the Chief Veterinary Officer. The law establishes systems for monitoring antimicrobial resistance in animals, food of animal origin, and feed, and also requires the development of a national action plan aimed at reducing risks related to the use of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine, outlining goals, actions, responsible entities, and monitoring mechanisms. The Act further regulates vaccination and the use of veterinary medicinal products for disease control, mandatory rabies vaccination of dogs and foxes, and the keeping and training of personnel handling specified risk materials. The Act also creates a comprehensive registration and approval system for establishments, transporters, aquaculture facilities, compartments and establishments handling animal by-products, with central and regional registers and public online lists.