Veterinary and Para-Veterinary Professions Act, 1982 (Act No. 19 of 1982)RulesRules relating to the Practising of Para-Veterinary Profession of Animal Health Technician7. Issuing of para-veterinary documents |
| (1) | Record, reports or other documents, which are issued by an animal health technician in his/her professional capacity, must contain facts which are professionally verifiable, save for the historical information and identity supplied by the owner, which must be stipulated as such. |
| (2) | An animal health technician may only report those matters of which— |
| (a) | He/she has personal knowledge; |
| (b) | Can be ascertained by him/her personally; or |
| (c) | Are the subject of a supporting report or record from a veterinary professional or another para-veterinary professional, who has personal knowledge of the matter in question and is authorised to provide such a supporting document. |
| (3) | The document referred to in Rule 7(1) must: |
| (a) | Be prepared with care and accuracy; |
| (b) | Be legible; |
| (c) | Be unambiguous and easy to understand; |
| (d) | Be produced on one sheet of paper or, where more than one page is required, these must be consequentially numbered and initialled; |
| (e) | Contain dates that are clear and correct and cannot be misinterpreted; and |
| (f) | Not attest to future events. |
| (4) | All documents thus issued must indicate all details relevant to the purpose of the document and can include— |
| (a) | The name and residential address of the owner of the animal concerned; |
| (b) | The address of the premises where the animal is kept, if different from the owner’s; |
| (c) | The breed, sex, colour and age of the animal; |
| (d) | Name or identification of the animal as reported by the owner; |
| (e) | Any positive identification of the animal such as tattoo numbers, body markings, microchip number and date of micro-chipping where possible; |
| (f) | The purpose for which the report is submitted, (e.g., proof of vaccination, suspected notifiable disease, etc), where applicable; and |
| (g) | The date of issue of the report, as well as the date of examination of the animal. |
| (5) | Any record or other document which is issued in a professional capacity by an animal health technician must be signed by such an animal health technician personally. |
| (6) | When issuing a record, an animal health technician must ensure that— |
| (a) | The record contains his/her signature and in clear, legible lettering, his/her name, qualifications, registration number and the physical address of the registered facility; |
| (b) | An exception to 5(6)(a) is allowed for pre-printed vaccination report documents where the printed space does not allow for all the information and only the required detail must be filled in; |
| (c) | He/she completes any manuscript portions in ink; |
| (d) | The documents contain no deletions, other than those, which are indicated on the face of the document to be permissible, and subject to such deletions being initialled by the animal health technician; |
| (e) | No correction fluid to be used on a document; and |
| (f) | No blank spaces on any document exist that may be used by another person to alter the original. |
| (7) | All vaccination record cards must indicate— |
| (a) | The name of the owner of the animal concerned; |
| (b) | The specie, sex, colour and name of the animal; |
| (c) | The identification number/mark of the animal; |
| (d) | The name of the vaccine and batch number, or its self-sticking label; and |
| (e) | The date of vaccination of the animal concerned. |
| (8) | Laboratory result reports communicated by the animal health technician to the veterinarian shall contain the minimum following information, as applicable: |
| (a) | date specimen was collected, date received, date completed, and date of release of result; |
| (b) | owner information; |
| (c) | animal identification as submitted; |
| (d) | tests performed and methods used; |
| (e) | final test results; |
| (f) | signature of person authorizing the release of the results and the date. |