IATA expands CEIV certification program with live-animal version

Today, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has launched a new certification program called CEIV-Live Animals, that provides an industry standard for the safe handling of animals being transported in the cargo hold of aircraft. The launch is an expansion of IATA’s Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) program that ensures compliance to handling standards across the entire supply chain.

Like the organization’s CEIV-Pharma certification, which connects parties through the supply chain to ensure the careful handling of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals, the new CEIV-Live Animals certification aims to bring more transparency and procedural guidelines to the handling of the precious cargo.

“For those shipping live animals, the CEIV-Live Animals program will provide a reliable quality benchmark,” said Nick Careen, IATA’s senior vice president of airport, passenger, cargo and security. “Just as CEIV-Pharma helped provide quality standards for temperature-sensitive healthcare shipments, the new program extends that expertise to the important field of transporting and handling of animals.”

IATA worked with the London Heathrow Animal Reception Centre (HARC) and Air Canada Cargo to turn its existing IATA Live Animal Regulations (LAR) into an attainable certification. The program also abides by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) requirements, which aims prevent international trade from endangering thousands of animal and plant species survival in the wild.

The program is available for airports, carriers and logistics industry members that are interested in gaining the certification.