9 C.F.R. PART 92—IMPORTATION OF ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS: PROCEDURES FOR REQUESTING RECOGNITION OF REGIONS


Title 9 - Animals and Animal Products


Title 9: Animals and Animal Products

Browse Previous |  Browse Next

PART 92—IMPORTATION OF ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS: PROCEDURES FOR REQUESTING RECOGNITION OF REGIONS

Section Contents
§ 92.1   Definitions.
§ 92.2   Application for recognition of the animal health status of a region.
§ 92.3   Movement restrictions.
§ 92.4   Reestablishment of a region's disease-free status.


Authority:  7 U.S.C. 1622 and 8301–8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.4.

Source:  62 FR 56012, Oct. 28, 1997, unless otherwise noted.

§ 92.1   Definitions.
top

Active surveillance. Sample collection using a systematic or statistically designed survey methodology to actively seek out and find cases of animals with a restricted disease agent, or to determine the prevalence of the restricted disease agent in the population.

Adjacent region. Any geographic land area, whether or not identifiable by geological, political or surveyed boundaries, that shares common boundaries with any region.

Administrator. The Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service or any other employee of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture, delegated to act in the Administrator's stead.

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Animals. All species of the animal kingdom, except man, including: Cattle, sheep, goats, other ruminants, swine, horses, asses, mules, zebras, dogs, poultry, and birds that are susceptible to communicable diseases of livestock and poultry or capable of being carriers of those diseases or their arthropod vectors.

Communicable disease. Any contagious or infectious disease of animals. It can be transmitted either directly or indirectly to a susceptible animal from an infected animal, vector, inanimate source, or other sources.

Contagious disease. Any communicable disease transmitted from one animal to another by direct contact or by feed, water, aerosol, or contaminated objects.

Disease agent. A virus, bacterium, or other organism that causes disease in animals.

European Union. The organization of Member States consisting of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Northern Ireland).

Import (imported, importation) into the United States. To bring into the territorial limits of the United States.

Passive surveillance. A surveillance system that does not depend on active participation by the responsible agency to seek out and monitor a restricted disease agent. The system relies on mandatory reporting, a pool of trained investigators, diagnostic submission procedures and laboratory support, and periodic public information and continuing education programs on diseases.

Prevalence. The number of cases of a disease in existence at a given time in a designated area.

Region. Any defined geographic land region identifiable by geological, political or surveyed boundaries. A region may consist of any of the following:

(1) A national entity (country);

(2) Part of a national entity ( zone, county, department, municipality, parish, Province, State, etc.);

(3) Parts of several national entities combined into an area; or

(4) A group of national entities (countries) combined into a single area.

Restricted disease agent. Any communicable disease agent or its vector not known to exist in the United States or that is subject to a Federal or cooperative Federal/State control or eradication program within the United States.

Surveillance. Systems to find, monitor, and confirm the existence or absence of a restricted disease agent or agents in livestock, poultry and other animals. Surveillance may be passive or active.

United States. All of the States of the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and all other territories and possessions of the United States.

Vector-borne disease. A disease transmitted to an animal through an intermediate arthropod vector, including ticks or insects.

[62 FR 56012, Oct. 28, 1997, as amended at 68 FR 16938, Apr. 7, 2003]

§ 92.2   Application for recognition of the animal health status of a region.
top

(a) The representative of the national government(s) of any country or countries who has the authority to request such a change may request at any time that all or part of the country or countries be recognized as a region, be included within an adjacent previously recognized region, or be made part of a region larger than an individual country. Requests for recognition of a region must be sent to the Administrator, in accordance with paragraph (c) of this section.

(b) Each request for approval to export a particular type of animal or animal product to the United States from a foreign region must be made to the Administrator, in accordance with paragraph (c) of this section, and must include, in English, the following information about the region:

(1) The authority, organization, and infrastructure of the veterinary services organization in the region.

(2) Disease status—i.e., is the restricted disease agent known to exist in the region? If “yes,” at what prevalence? If “no,” when was the most recent diagnosis?

(3) The status of adjacent regions with respect to the agent.

(4) The extent of an active disease control program, if any, if the agent is known to exist in the region.

(5) The vaccination status of the region. When was the last vaccination? What is the extent of vaccination if it is currently used, and what vaccine is being used?

(6) The degree to which the region is separated from adjacent regions of higher risk through physical or other barriers.

(7) The extent to which movement of animals and animal products is controlled from regions of higher risk, and the level of biosecurity regarding such movements.

(8) Livestock demographics and marketing practices in the region.

(9) The type and extent of disease surveillance in the region—e.g., is it passive and/or active; what is the quantity and quality of sampling and testing?

(10) Diagnostic laboratory capabilities.

(11) Policies and infrastructure for animal disease control in the region—i.e., emergency response capacity.

(c) Requests for recognition of a region or for approval to export animals or animal products to the United States from a region, including the information required by this section, must be sent to the Administrator, c/o National Center for Import and Export, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 38, Riverdale, MD 20737–1231. (Where possible, include a copy of the request and accompanying information on a 3.5-inch floppy disk in ASCII or a word processing format.)

(d) The information submitted in accordance with paragraph (b) of this section will be made available to the public prior to initiation by APHIS of any rulemaking action on the request.

(e) If, after review of the information submitted, APHIS believes the requested importation can be safely allowed, APHIS will publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register to allow the importation, and the conditions under which the importation would be allowed, along with a discussion of the basis for the proposal.

(f) APHIS will provide a period of time during which the public may comment on the proposal. During the comment period, the public will have access to the information upon which APHIS based its analysis of the risk of such importation, as well as to its methodology in conducting the analysis. Once APHIS has reviewed all comments received, it will make a final decision on what conditions will be necessary to allow the importation in question, and will publish the conditions for import in the Federal Register.

(g) If a region is granted animal health status under the provisions of this section, that region may be required to submit additional information pertaining to animal health status or allow APHIS to conduct additional information collection activities in order for that region to maintain its animal health status.

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 0579–0219)

[62 FR 56012, Oct. 28, 1997, as amended at 68 FR 50054, Aug. 20, 2003]

§ 92.3   Movement restrictions.
top

Whenever the European Commission (EC) establishes a quarantine for a disease in the European Union in a region the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recognizes as one in which the disease is not known to exist and the EC imposes prohibitions or other restrictions on the movement of animals or animal products from the quarantined area in the European Union, such animals and animal products are prohibited importation into the United States.

[68 FR 16938, Apr. 7, 2003]

§ 92.4   Reestablishment of a region's disease-free status.
top

This section applies to regions that are designated in this subchapter D as free of a specific animal disease and then experience an outbreak of that disease.

(a) Interim designation. If a region recognized as free of a specified animal disease in this subchapter D experiences an outbreak of that disease, APHIS will take immediate action to prohibit or restrict imports of animals and animal products from that region. Such action may include publishing an interim rule that imposes prohibitions or restrictions that may be announced initially administratively. The interim rule may be given an effective date earlier than the date of signature or publication to affirm our authority for issuing previous administrative orders. The interim rule may impose prohibitions or restrictions on only a portion of the region previously recognized as free of a disease. In these cases, APHIS will provide information to the public as soon as possible regarding the basis for its decision to prohibit or restrict imports from the smaller area of that region previously recognized as free.

(b) Reassessment of the disease situation. (1) Following publication of an interim rule as described in paragraph (a) of this section, APHIS will reassess the disease situation in that region to determine whether it is necessary to continue the interim prohibitions or restrictions. In reassessing a region's disease status, APHIS will take into consideration the standards of the Office International des Epizooties for reinstatement of disease-free status, as well as all relevant information obtained through public comments on both the initial interim rule and the notice of availability of the reassessment or relevant information collected by or submitted to APHIS through other means.

(2) Prior to taking any action to relieve or finalize prohibitions or restrictions imposed by the interim rule, APHIS will make information regarding its reassessment of the region's disease status available to the public for comment. APHIS will announce the availability of this information by publishing a notice in the Federal Register.

(c) Determination. Based on the reassessment conducted in accordance with paragraph (b) of this section, including comments regarding the reassessment information, APHIS will take one of the following actions:

(1) Publish a final rule that reinstates the disease-free status of the region, or a portion of the region, covered by the interim rule;

(2) Publish an affirmation of the interim rule that imposed prohibitions or restrictions on the imports of animals and animal products from that region; or

(3) Publish another document in the Federal Register for comment.

[69 FR 25819, May 10, 2004]

Browse Previous |  Browse Next









































































chanrobles.com





ChanRobles Legal Resources:

ChanRobles On-Line Bar Review

ChanRobles Internet Bar Review : www.chanroblesbar.com

ChanRobles MCLE On-line

ChanRobles Lawnet Inc. - ChanRobles MCLE On-line : www.chanroblesmcleonline.com