The Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the “Announcement on Further Strengthening the Management of Animal Quarantine and Transport (Draft for Comments),” with the comment period ending on the 9th day of the 28 month.
The new rules will formally repeal Announcement No. 79, issued during the prevention and control of African swine fever in 2018. They will completely change the previous single-focus regulatory model, which focused only on vehicles transporting live pigs. The scope of regulation will expand from live pigs to all categories of livestock and poultry, covering market entities across the entire chain, including farms and farming households, slaughtering enterprises, livestock and poultry purchasing intermediaries, transport operators, and operators of markets for agricultural products. A new system for disease-prevention transport will be established, featuring intermediary registration, vehicle tracking records, arrival reporting, intelligent alerts, and closed-loop supervision. Everyone working in pig farming must pay close attention.
Pig-Purchasing Intermediaries Bid Farewell to “Gray-Area Operations”
In the pastPig farmersWhen selling pigs, farmers may have little or no information about the intermediaries who come and go to buy them. Information about transactions is often unclear, making traceability difficult. The new rules specify that all intermediaries engaged in purchasing or selling livestock and poultry, including sales agents, are subject to standardized oversight and must register before conducting business.
As required, livestock and poultry buyers and sellers must use the “Muyuntong” module on the “Nongzhengtong” mobile app to truthfully submit basic information such as their name, business license or personal identification, address, and contact details, and complete system registration and filing to create an industry directory that can be queried. Practitioners must also establish and maintain purchase and sales ledgers, recording in detail the numbers of animal quarantine certificates, whether livestock and poultry identification tags are attached, transport vehicle registration information, and vehicle cleaning and disinfection details, so that every livestock and poultry transaction can be verified.
For quarantine declarations, the new rules specify that livestock and poultry farms (households) are responsible for submitting declarations for quarantine at the place of origin, and must proactively submit the required materials and information before livestock and poultry leave the farm. To make this easier for farmers, the new rules allow declarations to be filed by an agent. If a farm or household is genuinely unable to file on its own, it may issue a letter of authorization and entrust a buyer or seller registered on “Muyuntong” to file on its behalf. Unregistered intermediaries are not qualified to file on behalf of others, putting an end to unauthorized filing. This adjustment both reinforces responsibility for disease prevention and saves small and medium-sized farmers the trouble of making trips to handle paperwork.
Transport vehicles that violate pig-transport rules will be placed on a blacklist
The transport process is the core of the regulatory upgrade under these new rules. They completely break with the previous “register once for life” approach to vehicle registration and establish closed-loop management featuring dynamic review, accountability for violations, and nationwide coordination. The new rules stipulate that if an animal health supervision agency finds during quarantine that a transport vehicle does not meet registration requirements, it will immediately provide guidance on corrective action and notify the competent authority at the place of registration. If the corrective action is inadequate, the vehicle’s registration qualification will be revoked directly.
The most binding measure is the nationwide shared “blacklist” mechanism. Local authorities will establish a database of transport vehicles involved in illegal or non-compliant activities within provincial animal quarantine certificate issuance systems, and share information nationwide through the Veterinary Health Comprehensive Information Platform. When an official veterinarian processes a quarantine application, if a check reveals that the vehicle involved has a record of illegal or non-compliant activity, the veterinarian will directly advise the cargo owner to switch to a compliant vehicle and refer the leads regarding the violation to the agricultural comprehensive law enforcement agency for investigation and handling. Paying a fine alone does not resolve a vehicle violation: all corrective actions must be completed before the violation information can be removed from the database, and subsequent transport of livestock and poultry will be restricted throughout the process. In addition, all livestock and poultry transport entities and individuals must promptly upload transport logs to the provincial animal quarantine certificate issuance system, ensuring that the entire transport process is documented and can be checked and traced.
New Exemption Policy for Short-Distance Transport
The new rules introduce, for the first time, an exemption mechanism for short-distance transport of small quantities of livestock and poultry. It is tailored to small-scale farming scenarios such as smallholders sending animals to market, exchanges between neighbors, and transfers between groups at small pig farms, substantially reducing the compliance burden on local operators. The new rules specify that for livestock and poultry transported within a county, non-registered vehicles that have been cleaned and disinfected may be used if the quantity limits are met: no more than 5 head (horses) of cattle, camels, or equines; no more than 10 head (animals) of pigs, sheep, deer, or alpacas; no more than 100 of mink and other non-food animals, poultry, or rabbits; and no more than 500 chicks.
It is important to note that this exemption policy applies only to short-distance transport within a county. Transport across county boundaries still requires the use of registered vehicles. Exempt vehicles must also be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. In the event of a major animal disease outbreak, the agriculture and rural affairs authorities at or above the county level may adjust the transport requirements for unregistered vehicles at any time based on the disease prevention situation, and strengthen disease prevention controls as appropriate.
A full-chain traceability loop is now fully established
The new regulations address the shortcoming in livestock and poultry transport oversight at the destination, replacing the previous lax approach under which oversight ended as soon as pigs arrived. They require information to be verified, reports to be filed in the system, and supporting documents to be retained at the final stage. Livestock and poultry farms and slaughtering enterprises must strictly verify the quarantine certificates, breeds and quantities, and ear-tag status of livestock and poultry entering their premises, and, within the prescribed time limit, report their arrival at the destination through the animal quarantine certification system.
Livestock and poultry markets are also explicitly included among the regulated entities. Market operators must comprehensively check the quarantine certificates, livestock and poultry identification, registered status of transport vehicles, and health condition of livestock and poultry entering and leaving the market. They must truthfully record key information, including livestock and poultry species, quantities, entry and exit times, transport vehicle license plate numbers, and quarantine certificate numbers. Relevant supporting documents must be retained for no less than 12 months to ensure that the entire market transaction process is traceable.