On 8th July, Jane Clark, Vice President of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) and Past President of EASVO participated in the European Commission’s High-Level Conference on Animal Health Law – 10 Years of Achievement in Brussels, a milestone event marking 10 years since the entry into force of the Animal Health Law (AHL) and 5 years since its application across the European Union.
The conference marks a pivotal moment as launch event of the European Commission’s evaluation of the Animal Health Law. It confirms what veterinary professionals have long championed: prevention is better than cure. Over the past decade. With the Animal Health Law, Europe has moved from a fragmented framework to a streamlined, coherent animal health system focused on prevention, preparedness, surveillance and rapid response.
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The Commission’s evaluation report highlights major achievements and lessons learned. The evaluation also highlight future areas of work, such as:
- Review and potentially revise disease categorisation, particularly for (re)-emerging and vector-borne diseases.
- Adopt EU rules on contingency plans and improve outbreak preparedness.
- Strenghten surveillance and biosecurity systems, including clear rules for animal health visits.
- Evaluate and potentially expand the strategic use of vaccination.
- Develop more sustainable funding and compensation mechanisms for disease outbreaks.
- Launch a comprehensive review of TSE legislation and review/update the zoonoses framework.
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Animal Health Visits: The Prevention Tool Still Underused
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In the conference, FVE Vice-President Jane Clark emphasised the importance of one of the Animal Health Law’s most innovative provisions: regular animal health visits by veterinarians, introduced under Article 25 of the AHL. Rewatch the recording HERE. |
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However, FVE’s assessment shows that implementation remains insufficient and uneven across Europe, with no country yet fully achieving the intended level of harmonised implementation. As the Commission’s evaluation itself recognises, more consistent implementation of risk-based animal health visits, surveillance and biosecurity measures remains essential. FVE continues to advocate for a fully integrated prevention model based on three mutually reinforcing pillars:
- Regular animal health visits
- Science-based biosecurity measures
- Strategic vaccination programmes
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Looking at the bigger picture: The EU Livestock Strategy
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The conference took place a day after the unveil of the EU Livestock Strategy, a key output of the Commissions Vision for Agriculture and Food. The Strategy, the first of its kind, recognises the essential role of sustainable livestock farming in Europe’s future to protect Europe’s food security and support rural communities in all their diversity through five priorities, including a livestock sector which is resilient and prepared for crisis, competitive – in the EU and globally, sustainable and fit for all farms and regions as well as excellence in livestock production.
The European Commission further underlined the importance of enhancing animal welfare across all stages of production (including plans for phasing out cages and enhancing welfare standards for livestock) and in imported products, to align with consumer expectations and ethical considerations. In several sectors, efficient production systems, advanced veterinary services and well-developed supply chains support productivity and export performance.
For veterinarians, animal health and climate resilience are increasingly interconnected, as highlighted in FVE comments. For FVE, a successful EU Livestock Strategy depends on people, prevention and coherence:
- People: Support farmers and veterinarians with the skills, incentives and resources needed to deliver.
- Prevention: Effective implementation of animal health visits support biosecurity, vaccination and early intervention as default approaches aligned with sustainable animal welfare practices
- Coherence: Aligned CAP policies that respect Europe’s territorial diversity while safeguarding animal health and welfare, public health and food security.
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Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, vector-borne diseases and new disease emergence patterns are already reshaping the risks faced by farmers, animals and veterinary services across Europe. Based on the evaluation report, the Commission concluded that no fundamental reform of the Animal Health Law is needed. The priority is now to make it future-proof, ensure consistent implementation, strengthen prevention, improve preparedness, support veterinary capacity and expand the effective use of vaccination.
FVE fully supports this direction and highlighted that the next decade should focus on:
- Redirecting resources from crisis management towards prevention.
- Preventive vaccination where scientifically justified.
- Stronger biosecurity on farms.
- Better disease surveillance.
- Investment in veterinary services and rural areas.
- Development of innovative vaccines and diagnostic tools.
The success of future EU animal health policy will depend not only on legislation, but on ensuring that veterinary expertise is deployed where it creates the greatest value: on farms, supporting prevention, preparedness and resilience.
Prevention is better than cure.
Prevention is cheaper than controlling outbreaks.
The time to act is now.
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