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4:1-21.5. Powers of department; quarantines
The department may institute and enforce such measures as it may deem necessary to control
infectious or contagious diseases of live stock and poultry, diseases of plants, injurious
insects and other plant pests; may initiate and carry out programs for promoting more
economical methods of marketing and distribution of farm products, in the interests of
consumers of the State, and programs for the promotion of agriculture in general; and may
carry out such other activities or control programs related to agriculture as the
Legislature may from time to time assign to it.
The board may establish and enforce general or local quarantines and issue and enforce orders and regulations to carry out the duties listed in this section.
The department shall file in the office of the Secretary of State copies of all quarantines established and public orders issued by the board.
4:5-1. Declaring epidemic; quarantine; serums; other preventive measures
The State Board of Agriculture may:
a. Determine the existence of contagious and infectious diseases in animals or poultry and declare the same to be epidemic;
b. Establish and enforce general or local quarantine;
c. Provide and distribute, with or without charge as it may determine, serums for the prevention and cure of such diseases in animals or poultry as in its judgment are capable of prevention or cure by such treatment;
d. Provide a service and co-operate with owners of livestock or local veterinarians to control or prevent the spread of mastitis or other contagious or infectious diseases that do not justify the measures specified in paragraphs a, b and c of this section, so that such diseases may not become a dangerous menace to other livestock or to human health.
These powers and duties are in addition to and not in limitation of any similar powers and duties conferred upon the board by the specific provisions appearing elsewhere in this title.
4:5-2. Diseases not specifically designated
All powers and duties conferred upon the board with reference to a specific contagious or
infectious disease of animals or poultry, the board shall have and perform with reference
to any other such disease not specifically referred to in this chapter but determined by
the board to be a contagious or infectious disease of animals or poultry.
4:5-2.1. Adoption of rules and regulations; fee schedule; animal health and
disease testing
a. The State Board of Agriculture may adopt, pursuant to the "Administrative
Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c. 410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), rules and regulations
establishing a schedule in accordance with which the board may charge reasonable fees to
defray the cost of:
(1) Animal disease diagnostic and testing services conducted pursuant to R.S.4:5-1 et
seq.; and
(2) Animal health tests deemed necessary by the State Board of Agriculture.
b. Any fees established by the State Board of Agriculture pursuant to this section shall
supersede all prior animal testing and diagnostic service fees on the date of the State
Board of Agriculture's adoption of new fees pursuant to this section.
4:5-2.2. Agriculture Fee Program Revolving Fund; creation
a. There is hereby created in the Department of Agriculture a non-lapsing revolving fund
to be known as the "Agriculture Fee Program Revolving Fund," hereinafter
referred to as the fund, to be held separate and apart from all other funds of the State.
All fees collected pursuant to section 1 of this act shall be deposited into the fund and
appropriated annually by the Legislature based on estimates provided annually by the
Director of Budget and Accounting in the Office of Management and Budget. All moneys
appropriated from the fund shall be dedicated to the support of the program for which they
were collected. All earnings received from the investment or deposit of moneys in the fund
shall be credited to the fund.
b. The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture may adopt, pursuant to the
"Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c. 410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), rules and
regulations necessary for the implementation of the provisions of this section.
4:5-3. Penalty for violating orders of board
A person who shall violate or fail to comply with an order of the board, or its
constituted agent, made pursuant to sections 4:5-1 and 4:5-2 of this title, shall be
liable to a penalty of not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars for each
violation or failure to comply, to be sued for and recovered by and in the name of the
secretary of agriculture in the manner provided in article 2 of chapter 23 of this title
(§ 4:23-11 et seq.).
4:5-4. Notice to department by veterinarians and others of existence or appearance of
disease
In case certain contagious or infectious diseases, which are designated by the Department
of Agriculture as a particular and dangerous menace to the animal health of the State,
shall appear or be suspected to exist in any locality, all veterinarians practicing in the
State who shall gain knowledge of the existence or suspected existence of such disease, or
any person who shall gain knowledge of the existence or suspected existence of such
disease among animals owned by him or on premises owned or controlled by him, shall notify
the Department of Agriculture of the facts within forty-eight hours.
4:5-5. Failure to give notice; punishment
Any veterinarian practicing in the State, or any owner of animals or premises containing
animals with infectious disease or suspected of infectious disease as described in section
4:5-4 who fails to notify the Department of Agriculture as required in 4:5-4 shall be
punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars ($10.00), or more than one hundred dollars
($100.00).
4:5-6. Quarantine of infected or exposed animals; regulations
Upon receiving information that an infectious or contagious disease exists or is suspected
to exist in any herd or in any locality, the department may investigate or cause an
investigation to be made. If the department deems it to be advisable it may quarantine
such animals, take such precautionary measures with relation to other animals exposed to
the disease as shall be deemed necessary, and enforce such regulations in relation to the
disease as it may adopt.
4:5-7. Inoculation of herd exposed to disease
When any herd or portion thereof is exposed to any contagious or infectious disease, and
the department deems the disease likely to spread to that portion of the herd still
unaffected, although isolated or quarantined, the department may, cause or allow the herd
to be inoculated for the prevention of such diseases as can be thus mitigated. Loss
resulting from such inoculation shall not constitute a claim against the State or the
department. Inoculation for pleuropneumonia shall in no case be allowed without the
consent of the department, and shall be made under its direction.
4:5-8. Buying or selling affected or exposed animals a misdemeanor
A person who without a permit from the department shall knowingly buy or sell, or cause to
be bought or sold, an animal which is a part of a herd or stock held in quarantine, shall
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars
($200.00), or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.
4:5-9. Slaughter and burial of infected animals in certain cases
Whenever in the judgment of the department it shall appear that the disease is not likely
to yield to remedial treatment, or that the expense of such treatment will be greater than
the value of the animals infected; and when in any case the disease is likely, in the
judgment of the department, to be communicated to other animals, it may cause the animals
infected to be slaughtered immediately and their remains to be buried at least four feet
beneath the surface of the ground or it may cause the animal to be disposed of otherwise
in accordance with instructions. The department may require that all places in which the
same have been kept be thoroughly cleansed and disinfected.
4:5-10. Appraisement of and compensation for animals slaughtered
When animals are slaughtered or otherwise disposed of as directed in section 4:5-9 of this
Title, the value of the same may, at the request of the department or any person
interested, be ascertained and appraised by any authorized agent of the department, or in
cases where an agreement between the agent and the owner cannot be reached, by three
disinterested freeholders resident in this State, one chosen by the agent, one chosen by
the owner and the third by the first two at the expense of the owner, who shall make and
sign a certificate thereof in the presence of a witness who shall attest the same.
The appraisement shall be made on the basis of the market value of the animals to be slaughtered immediately prior to the time of the discovery of the infection .
Such appraisal and disposal shall be carried out under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the board, which may prescribe a maximum payment for any animal or animals, and may authorize the condemnation of an entire herd of animals and compensation therefor, even though all of the animals in the herd are not infected, where the secretary determines that an entire herd or flock needs to be slaughtered to control a disease or prevent its spread to other animals. The total amount receivable by the owner from the net proceeds of the sale of the animal, plus indemnity, if any, from the Federal Government, and plus the indemnity from the State, shall not, however, exceed the appraised value of the animal or animals. The board may promulgate rules and regulations to authorize payment for any disposal cost determined to be necessary.
4:5-11. Disposal of dead or slaughtered animals; disposal for food a misdemeanor
When, by reason of the locality of an infected animal or herd within a city, or by reason
of frozen ground or extreme heat, it is, in the judgment of the department of agriculture,
inexpedient or impossible to bury any such dead or slaughtered animal on the premises, the
department may authorize any veterinarian acting for it to slash the skin and cut the
flesh of the animal, and, either under his direct oversight, or that of a city board of
health, or contractor for the disposal of dead carcasses, to give over the same to the use
of a bone-boiling or glue or other establishment for the disposal of dead animals, but in
no case shall the dead animal, or any part thereof, be disposed of for food, and any such
disposal of the same shall make the party concerned guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable
by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail for a
period not exceeding six months.
4:5-12. Post-mortem examination of dead or slaughtered animals
If, between October first and May first of any year, a veterinarian who has been regularly
graduated in veterinary medicine, desires to make a post-mortem examination of an animal
he has attended or at the request of the owner of an animal that has died within the city
limits, he may do so, if the examination is made within twenty hours of the death or
slaughter of the animal.
In every such case he shall notify the city scavenger, or remover of carcasses of animals, of the hour of the examination, and the scavenger shall arrange to remove the carcass in not more than three hours after the beginning of the examination.
4:5-13. Authority of department
When a county, city, township or district is threatened with a contagious or infectious
disease among animals, or poultry, to such an extent as to seem to require more general
precautions, the department of agriculture may for such time as it shall deem necessary
and proper, quarantine such county, city, township or district and prohibit the bringing
of any animal or poultry, subject to such contagious or infectious disease, into such
county, city, township or district, or the removal of any such animal, or poultry, out of
or from one place to another within the county, city, township or district without
inspection and a written permit signed by the department or its duly constituted agent or
representative.
4:5-14. Posting and publication of notice
The department shall cause public notice of the quarantine and prohibition to be posted in
five or more conspicuous places within the county, city, township or district and
published in one or more newspapers circulating therein.
4:5-15. Co-operation with federal bureau
The department may co-operate with the bureau of animal industry of the United States in
any measures deemed necessary to eradicate or prevent the spread of any such contagious or
infectious disease.
4:5-16. Transportation of animals within, into or from quarantined area
When a county, city, township, district, animal, herd of animals or poultry is quarantined
pursuant to this article and public notice thereof is given as provided in section 4:5-14
of this title, no owner, keeper or other person shall drive or transport, or permit to be
driven or transported, into, out of, or from one place to another within such county,
city, township, district or place of quarantine, any animal of the kind named in the
quarantine, or visit any animal, herd of animals or poultry so quarantined without a
written permit signed by the department or its constituted agent or representative.
4:5-17. Penalty
A person who shall violate any of the provisions of section 4:5-16 of this title shall for
a first offense be liable to a penalty of not less than one hundred nor more than two
hundred dollars, and shall for each subsequent offense be liable to a penalty of two
hundred dollars or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.
The penalty shall be sued for and recovered and the imprisonment imposed in an action
to be brought by and in the name of the secretary of agriculture in the manner provided in
article 2 of chapter 23 of this title (§ 4:23-11 et seq.).
Amended in 1998.
Reviewed and updated by AAHS in December 2001.
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