The 6-day whole farm standstill
Information related to the 6-day whole farm standstill, which is applied when animals move onto a farm, including details of exemptions from the standstill.
- Movement of cattle, sheep, goats or pigs onto a farm will trigger a 6-day whole farm standstill for all of these species.
- Exemption from this whole farm standstill will be permitted in the following cases:
- Movement of animals directly to a slaughterhouse even if the farm is under standstill.
- Movement to a Veterinary Treatment Centre or laboratory for diagnostic testing, provided the animals at the treatment centre are isolated.
- Movements to and from an Artificial Insemination (AI) centre, provided a protocol is in place that ensures that animals from different sources are held separately at the AI centre.
- Movement from any location when individual animals entering premises are held in a Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) approved isolation facility for a period 6 days before mixing with other livestock or onward movement to another premises, that is a 6-day standstill will apply only to the animals held in isolation. In this case the animals held in isolation must not move out of the isolation facility for at least 6 consecutive calendar days. Only the animals in isolation will be required to remain under standstill on the farm (in isolation) for 6 days and the standstill will not affect other animals on the farm, in other words, other animals may move off the farm. Animals in an approved isolation facility should not move to a show.
- Movement by a dealer, of animals bought in by the dealer onto his/her Trading Premises and then moved onto other premises within 6 days, providing the animals are moved to or from the dealer’s Trading Premises in accordance with the conditions of a specific licence granted by DARD. The animal can move only once from the dealer’s Trading Premises directly to a farm where the standstill arrangements then apply, or to a slaughterhouse in Northern Ireland. The animal must not move from the dealer’s Trading Premises to a market or other dealer’s Trading Premises.
