Intra-Community trade in certain animals and animal products; application for approval of a holding

The animals, breeding material or animal products that are to be moved within the EU must come from approved establishments and meet the identification and traceability requirements.

The overriding principle for the movement of animals is always that animal diseases are not spread and that animal health during transportation and the health status at the place of destination are not endangered. The operator bears primary responsibility for this.

For the approval of a business wishing to carry out intra-Community trade, it is checked whether compliance with the relevant animal disease, animal health and hygiene requirements is guaranteed.

With the approval, the respective business is assigned a registration number to be published for intra-Community trade.

The planned movement must be registered with the competent veterinary authority.

The animals must meet the animal health requirements for movement.

The approval procedure begins with the submission of the documents relevant to the approval to the locally responsible district administrative authority (district office or independent city), which carries out a preliminary review and forwards the application to the government. Based on the documents and an on-site visit, the government checks and decides whether the relevant animal disease, animal health and hygiene requirements are met in each individual case.

With the approval notice, the company is assigned a registration number for intra-Community trade, which is published in TRACES NT.

• Written application stating the animal species(es), the intended activities and the persons responsible for the operation
• Extract from the commercial register
• Cadastral plan
• Floor plan with designation of the rooms and facilities
• Floor plan with drawing of personnel routes
• Layout plan of the premises with drawing of the routes of the transport vehicles and animals as well as the disposal routes
• Hygiene zone plan
• Plans for water supply, wastewater disposal and carcass disposal
• Company hygiene programs
  (cleaning and disinfection plan, pest control plan)
• Company health programs
  (insemination stations, embryo transfer stations, etc.)
• General average concept
  (e.g. alarm plan with availability data for emergency killings, behavior in the event of an animal epidemic, power failure, other disruptions to normal operations)