The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Animal Transport Association (ATA) have joined forces to encourage industry adoption of the Center of Excellence for Independent Validators for Live Animals Logistics (CEIV Live Animals).
This was formalised through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between IATA and ATA at ATA’s 49th Annual Conference in Budapest, Hungary.
CEIV Live Animals was launched in April last year by IATA and Air Canada Cargo then became in August the first cargo carrier to receive CEIV Live Animals.
IATA and ATA say handling and transporting live animals is challenging and ensuring that standards and best practices are in place around the world to protect the welfare of these animals when they travel by air is a key priority for IATA and ATA. CEIV Live Animals is a standardised global certification program designed to help achieve this.
Under the terms of the MoU, ATA will encourage adoption of CEIV Live Animals among its members. In parallel, ATA and IATA will continue to work closely to ensure ATA members are aligned with the CEIV Live Animal Program requirements.
Both organizations will also collaborate to improve the handling and transport of animals worldwide and ensure access to adequate training for all stakeholders involved.
ATA president, Filip Vande Cappelle said: “Information, education and training of people involved in animal shipping is an absolute requirement. To secure the highest possible welfare of animals in transport, one needs high standards all along the logistic chain.
“Thanks to IATA these standards are available and, rather than re-inventing the wheel, ATA has chosen to collaborate with IATA to get these standards implemented as widely as possible amongst our Members through encouraging adoption of CEIV Live Animals.”
ATA is also encouraging its members to create CEIV certified communities, Cappelle said: “By creating communities between our Members, we can combine a number of stages in the CEIV Live Animal process which results in better collaboration between supply chain members, a commonly accepted standard and a considerable cost saving for the participants.
“We are convinced that this will highly benefit the welfare of animals being shipped and reduce the number of incidents.”
IATA’s global head of cargo, Glyn Hughes added: “Animal owners, breeders and shippers rely heavily on airlines to carry their precious cargo. As an industry, we have a duty of care to ensure that standards and best practices are in place around the world to protect the welfare of these animals. IATA is committed to working with ATA, its members and wider industry stakeholders to achieve excellence in the transport of live animals.”
