Forensic expertise of suspected flaws in organizing and carrying out veterinary-sanitary measures that have allegedly led to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases of animals

Abstract

The article considers the matters associated with reasons for conducting and criteria and peculiarities of forensic expertise in cases of suspected flaws in organization and execution of veterinary-sanitary measures as a part of criminal investigations related to disease outbreaks. It provides a rationale for the questions that could be put forward by a subject of assignment of forensic veterinary expertise for a forensic expert to solve during investigation of a suspected violation of Article 251 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violating veterinary rules), in particular, in cases of suspected shortcomings in organizing and conducting vete rinary-sanitary events for control of infectious diseases of animals. During a forensic-veterinary investigation, a forensic expert has to determine whether the extent and content of the measures taken to prevent the emergence and spread of diseases, and also to combat those diseases, had been adequate, as well as whether they adhered to the current institutional instructions. To generalize and assess the conducted veterinary-sanitary measures against the background of emergence and spread of epizoo tics (panzootics), the authors propose the following algorithm: 1) determining the presence or absence of certain documents (vete rinary and such issued by the State Emergency Anti-Epizootic Commission) in the materials of criminal investigation that con firm or refute the fact of conducting veterinary-sanitary measures against infectious diseases in animals; 2) assessment of interde pendence of the records; 3) assessing whether the conducted veterinary-sanitary measures for eliminating the infectious disease conformed to the requirements of the normative-legal acts of Ukraine or other normative documents 4) assessment of the extent and quality of the conducted measures; 5) substantiation of the types of flaws during the veterinary-sanitary events; 6) assessment of cause-effect; 7) substantiating the objective and subjective causes of the flaws in the measures. Practical importance of using the algorithm proposed by the authors of this article regarding veterinary-forensic identification of flaws in veterinary-sanitary measures against infectious diseases guarantees the reliable solution to the problems that law enforcement and courts face while investigating criminal violation of veterinary rules. It provides the domestic scientific and practical forensic activities with new opportunities, enhances the efficacy of assigning and of the productivity of forensic-veterinary expertise, provision of a substan tiated and objective conclusion of an expert in a categorical form, and also creates reliable conditions for the courts to deliver well-grounded procedural rulings.