Animal Production

GUY- Legal Hub - Animal Production - Picture © Brent Stirton

SUMMARY

Licences and registration requirements are provided in the legal framework for wildlife captive breeding operations, holding premises, livestock establishments (pig and poultry rearing operations, in particular) and fishery processing establishments.

Identification and registration of animals and movements are required. In this respect, the Wildlife Holding Premises Regulations provide for the registration of all specimens acquired, sold, disposed of or dead, and for the registration of movements. Similarly, the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act requires permanent marks to identify listed species to be exported. Although the Animal Health Act establishes that the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) is responsible for the development and implementation of an animal identification and traceability system, it does not provide details on its development and implementation.

Aquaculture is only regulated under environmental law and fishery products regulations.

Animal feed is regulated in the Animal Health Act, which includes feed in the definition of commodities. The Act provides regulations on distribution, sale, import and export of commodities. A licence to import animal feed is required, whose cost is established in the Animal Health Fees Regulations. The Food and Drugs Regulations includes drugs administered to animals, and provide for the obligation to place a warning on the label when the animals will be consumed as food. The Fishery Products Regulations provide for a monitoring system to check the level of contamination of fishery products.

The Animal Welfare Act prohibits the infliction of unnecessary pain to animals, as well as the abandonment of animals and the unprepared release of animals into the wild. The Act set out several duties and obligations for persons that keep animals for commercial production purposes so that the biological needs of the animals are met. This includes requirements for the construction of holding premises, for the regular inspection of animals and premises and for adequate feeding and watering. The Wildlife Holding Premises Regulations also provide regulations to ensure the welfare of wild animals under captivity. The Animal Welfare Act, the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act and the Wildlife Zoo Regulations establish specific requirements and conditions for the transportation of domestic and wild animals.

Regarding the institutional framework, the GLDA controls the production, processing of, and the trade in, livestock and livestock products. The Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission (GWCMC) oversees all wildlife including animal breeding operations.

ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION AND TRACEABILITY

FEED SAFETY AND QUALITY

ANIMAL WELFARE

AQUACULTURE

INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK RELEVANT TO ANIMAL PRODUCTION