India has crossed a long-awaited milestone in horse sport and trade: the Remount Veterinary Corps (RVC) Centre & College in Meerut Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh, now hosts the country’s first Equine Disease-Free Compartment (EDFC), officially recognised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) on 3 July 2025.
The recognition certifies that this tightly managed, biosecure facility meets WOAH’s compartmentalisation standards—unlocking smoother international movement for Indian sport horses and reducing or eliminating quarantine burdens where destination rules allow.
WHAT IS EDFC?
An EDFC is a clearly delimited, rigorously bio-secured “compartment” in which horses are kept free from specific diseases, with continuous surveillance, movement controls, and documented standard operating procedures. The status is granted under WOAH’s Terrestrial Animal Health Code provisions on compartmentalisation. In practice, it lets trading partners place trust in the health status of animals from that compartment, rather than judging risk at a whole-country level.
The facility sits inside the Army’s historic RVC campus in Meerut, a long-time equine hub that trains riders and manages military animal health. The project was coordinated by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying with the Directorate of Remount Veterinary Services (Ministry of Defence), the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) and the Uttar Pradesh Animal Husbandry Department—a cross-ministry effort that aligned infrastructure, surveillance and documentation to WOAH standards.
Meerut’s EDFC is more than a certificate on the wall—it’s a systems upgrade that aligns India’s equine sector with global best practice. For riders, owners and breeders, that means fewer barriers at borders and a clearer path from Indian arenas to the world stage.
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