- a)Animal Welfare (Bienestar Animal): the way in which an animal copes with the conditions of its environment. An animal is in good welfare conditions if, as indicated by scientific evidence, it is healthy, comfortable, well-fed, safe, can express innate forms of behavior, and does not suffer from unpleasant sensations of pain, fear, or distress. Good animal welfare conditions require that their diseases be prevented and veterinary treatments administered; that they be protected, handled, and fed correctly, and that they be handled and slaughtered in a compassionate manner. The concept of animal welfare refers to the state of the animal. The way of treating an animal is designated with other terms such as animal care, animal husbandry, or compassionate treatment.
- b)Sanitary Emergency (Emergencia Sanitaria): that exceptional event or occurrence caused by man or nature that puts animal health and veterinary public health at risk, generating a state of urgency and need that requires SENASA to take urgent and immediate actions within the scope of its competencies in accordance with Law No. 8495, General Law of the National Animal Health Service, which can be of two types:
i. Epidemic: which may be of accidental or intentional origin (bioterrorism), due to outbreaks of emerging or re-emerging diseases in animals, such as the appearance of exotic diseases, which meet the notification criteria of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) as established in Chapter 1.1 of the Terrestrial Animal Health Code. These emergencies, in turn, may or may not be associated with non-epidemic emergencies and/or disasters.
ii. Non-Epidemic: A situation or process triggered as a result of a phenomenon of natural or anthropogenic origin, which, upon finding conditions of vulnerability in a population, causes intense alterations in the normal conditions of the community's functioning, such as loss of veterinary public health, continuity in the production of food of animal origin, animal welfare, livestock assets, the commercialization of products and by-products of animal origin, and the environment.
Likewise, epidemic and non-epidemic sanitary emergencies can be classified as:
i. Regional Emergency: when the effects thereof cover the scope of a canton or several cantons of one or more provinces.
ii. National Emergency: when its scope covers the entirety of the national territory.
- c)Minor Sanitary Emergencies (Emergencias Sanitarias Menores): those lower-impact incidents that occur in a localized geographic area, with an impact on animal health and veterinary public health that does not warrant an emergency declaration by the Executive Branch, but which, due to their potential risk, require immediate attention from SENASA with the respective allocation of funds. For the attention of said emergencies, resources will be taken from the ordinary budget of the Institution, and in their execution, more expeditious procedures will be used to help achieve that end.
- d)Sanitary Emergency Plan (Plan de Emergencia Sanitaria): is an instrument whose objective is to establish the basic criteria for the actions to be carried out in sanitary emergency situations. It must be based on the following points:
i. Legal instrumentation ii. Eradication strategies iii. Plan of basic and support activities iv. Permanent training of personnel v. Technical-administrative-financial structure e) Risk (Riesgo): the probability of an incident harmful to Veterinary Public Health or animal health occurring and the probable magnitude of its biological and economic consequences.
- f)Animal Health (Salud Animal): a state of physical and ethological well-being, referring to the individual animal or to animal populations, which consists not only of the absence of disease but also of adequate health and animal welfare conditions.
- g)Veterinary Public Health (Salud Pública Veterinaria): a component of public health and therefore oriented towards protecting the health of the human population. It covers the prevention and control of diseases transmitted from animals, their products, by-products, and waste to people, in addition to safety, residue detection, control of veterinary medicines, and integration with animal health programs, among others. It is a key function of the Official Veterinary Service.
- h)National Animal Health Service (Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal) (SENASA): National Animal Health Service, created by Law No. 8495 of April 6, 2006.