
Article 1 
This Regulation lays down certain rules for the use of antimicrobials and vaccines in the framework of the national control programmes adopted pursuant to Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003 (national control programmes).
Article 2 

1. Antimicrobials shall not be used as a specific method to control salmonella in poultry.
2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, and subject to the conditions specified in points (a), (b) and (c), and in paragraph 3 of this Article, antimicrobials authorised in accordance with Article 5 of Directive 2001/82/EC or Article 3 of Regulation 726/2004/EC may be used in the following exceptional circumstances:
(a) poultry presenting salmonella infection with clinical signs in a way likely to cause undue suffering to the animals; the infected flocks treated with antimicrobials shall still be considered infected with salmonella; appropriate measures shall be taken in breeding flocks to reduce as much as possible the risk of spreading salmonella through the rest of the breeding pyramid;
(b) salvaging of valuable genetic material in breeding flocks in order to establish new salmonella-free flocks, including ‘elite flocks’, flocks from endangered breeds, and flocks kept for research purposes; chicks born from hatching eggs collected from poultry treated with antimicrobials shall be subject to fortnightly sampling during the rearing phase, with a scheme aiming to detect 1 % prevalence of relevant salmonella with a 95 % confidence limit;
(c) authorisation given by the competent authority on a case-by-case basis for purposes other than salmonella control in a flock suspect of salmonella infection, in particular following the epidemiological investigation of a food-borne outbreak or the detection of salmonella at the hatchery or at the holding; however, Member States may decide to allow treatment without prior authorisation in emergency situations, subject to taking samples by an approved veterinarian as defined in point (g) of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 854/2004 and reporting the treatment immediately to the competent authority; the flocks shall be considered as infected with salmonella if sampling did not take place in accordance with the provisions in this paragraph.
3. The use of antimicrobials shall be subject to supervision of and reporting to the competent authority. This use shall be based wherever possible on the results of bacteriological sampling and of susceptibility testing.
4. The provisions referred to in this Article shall not apply to substances, micro-organisms or preparations authorised for use as feed additives in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 1831/2003.
Article 3 

1. Live salmonella vaccines shall not be used in the framework of national control programmes where the manufacturer does not provide an appropriate method to distinguish bacteriologically wild-type strains of salmonella from vaccine strains.
2. Live salmonella vaccines shall not be used in the framework of national control programmes in laying hens during production unless the safety of the use has been demonstrated and they are authorised for such purpose in accordance with Directive 2001/82/EC.
3. Vaccination programmes against Salmonella enteritidis reducing the shedding and contamination of eggs, shall be applied at least during rearing to all laying hens at the latest from 1 January 2008 on in Member States as long as they did not demonstrated a prevalence below 10 % based on the results of the baseline study in accordance with Article 1 of Commission Decision 2004/665/EC or based on the monitoring to follow up the Community target, set in accordance with Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003.The competent authority may provide derogation from this provision to a holding if
— it is satisfied with the preventive measures taken on the holding of rearing and on the holding of egg production, and
— the absence of Salmonella enteritidis was demonstrated on the holding of rearing and production during the 12 months preceding the arrival of the animals.
Article 4 
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply to for each poultry population on the respective dates referred to in Column 5 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 2160/2003.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.Done at Brussels, 1 August 2006.
For the Commission
Markos KYPRIANOU
Member of the Commission