Compartmentalisation: an example of a national official assurance system

In South Africa's experience, compartmentalisation has been extremely effective in maintaining an animal subpopulation of a specific health status, based on segregation and biosecurity management. Compartmentalisation promotes animal disease control and underwrites a national official assurance system that provides zoosanitary trade guarantees for animals and animal products. South Africa started to develop the concept of compartmentalisation during the 1950s for the pig sector, due to African swine fever being endemic in wildlife in the north of the country, where certain biosecurity measures were used to protect domestic pigs. Compartmentalisation protocols were formalised and officially published from 2001 as voluntary systems, first for the pig industry and later for the poultry (chicken and ostrich) industry. South Africa uses five basic principles for animal health compartmentalisation, namely, segregation, biosecurity, record-keeping, surveillance and official inspection. These are applied in line with the World Organisation for Animal Health Terrestrial Animal Health Code guidelines. Industry and the farmer bear the costs of compartmentalisation and, in turn, obtain not only animal disease protection but also trade advantages due to health assurances. Compartmentalisation ensures optimal use of government resources as the expenses for animal disease control are shared with private industries. International acceptance and standardisation of compartments is advocated as a measure to provide assurances for disease freedom, based on risk-specific mitigation measures.