Effective July 27, 2001, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will suspend the issuance of export permits for horses from Canada destined to European Union (EU) member countries. The CFIA has made this decision because current regulations are not in compliance with the required oath statement regarding equine reportable diseases.

This situation arose through a regulatory oversight as the CFIA was working to improve Canada’s ability to respond to foreign animal disease risks for Canadian livestock. Canadian regulatory changes proposed this spring suggested two lists for reportable diseases. The first, called reportable diseases, would include diseases currently in the Canadian herd with treatment programs in place. New regulations include a second list, called immediately notifiable diseases, which cover diseases exotic to Canada or at a higher risk for inter-species transmission. Through this process of creating the two-tier disease list, two diseases, glanders and dourine, were removed from the reportable disease list and moved to the immediately notifiable list.

At the present time, all certificates required to export horses to the EU, whether temporarily or permanently, state that dourine and glanders are reportable diseases. This statement is technically no longer correct. Since the two diseases have now been placed on the immediately notifiable list, and not the reportable diseases list, the export certificate is no longer valid because it does not meet the standards set by the EU. CFIA has stopped issuing export permits until this regulatory detail can be corrected.

No additional export certificates will be issued to the EU until this situation has been resolved. It is important to note that this does not affect horses being exported to the United States