Official Veterinarian (Germany)
The official veterinarian is a veterinarian who has been entrusted with the tasks of public veterinary services ( animal welfare and combating animal diseases ) and food monitoring at a district office or an independent city . Prerequisites are a degree in veterinary medicine, a license to practice as a veterinarian and the state examination for higher veterinary service ("Second State Examination"), usually also a doctorate . The official veterinarian usually occupies a leading position in the veterinary office , an office of the local government. He can transfer certain tasks to other employed or freelance veterinarians, who then act as the official veterinarian .
The number of civil servants veterinarians in Germany has always been slightly over 1,500 since 2009 (compared to over 11,000 resident veterinarians and over 4,000 employed veterinarians).
Tasks in food control
Veterinary food monitoring includes all activities in the production and marketing of food of animal origin. This includes the monitoring of hygiene and other legal regulations. A special task during slaughter is the ante-mortem and meat inspection by the official veterinarian. He can be assisted by official technical assistants (formerly meat inspectors). In addition to the control of the storage and sales facilities in food companies, the checking of the company's records of controls on its own responsibility is a central task (control of (self) control). The official veterinarian is here primarily in the service of preventive health care and consumer protection.
Tasks in the control of animal diseases
According to the Animal Disease Act , all citizens who work with animals are obliged to report a suspicion of a notifiable animal disease. Ideally, the report should be made to the district administrative authority, but it can also be communicated to the police or the mayor. The official veterinarian then initiates diagnostic measures , quarantine and treatment measures and, under certain circumstances, killing of sick animals or herds.
The official veterinarian is also authorizations for setting a charge of cattle dead on in inaccessible areas.
Animal welfare tasks
The official veterinarian issues permits for the commercial keeping of animals and is responsible for keeping animals in a species-appropriate manner and for compliance with regulations for animal transport. The animal welfare supervision by the competent authority under state law is subject in particular to all livestock holdings, all facilities in connection with laboratory animals, slaughterhouses, transport companies, collection points and all those who require a permit according to Section 11 TierSchG. These include circus companies, commercial animal breeding companies, zoos and animal shelters. There is no fixed control frequency. Minimum control frequencies are only specified for facilities with laboratory animals. The monitoring is carried out risk-oriented or on the basis of suspicion or after reports.
Border service tasks
If an official area lies in the area of the state border, the official veterinarian is also responsible for the control of cross-border animal and food traffic. He takes over the import control and issues a border crossing certificate. The cross-border movement of animals and animal products from countries outside the European Union is only possible at a few defined border crossings.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.bmel-statistik.de/fileadmin/daten/SJT-3103100-0000.xlsx
- ↑ TierSchG - Animal Welfare Act. Retrieved December 15, 2019 .