Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are reopening the comment period for our notice that made a concept paper describing a new direction for the bovine brucellosis program available for public comment. This action will allow interested persons additional time to prepare and submit comments.

We are adopting as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that amended the Karnal bunt regulations to remove certain areas or fields in Riverside County, CA, from the list of regulated areas based on our determination that those areas or fields meet our criteria for release from regulation of Karnal bunt, a fungal disease of wheat. This interim rule relieved restrictions on certain areas or fields that are no longer necessary.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request an extension of approval of an information collection associated with regulations for importation of seed and screenings.

We are amending the regulations governing the importation of animal byproducts to require that untanned swine hides and skins from regions with African swine fever and bird trophies from regions with exotic Newcastle disease meet certain requirements or go directly to an approved establishment upon importation into the United States. We are also setting out certain requirements for the importation of untanned bovine, deer, and other ruminant hides and skins into the United States from Mexico to prevent the spread of bovine babesiosis. These requirements will provide for the importation of these articles under conditions intended to prevent the introduction of African swine fever, bovine babesiosis, and exotic Newcastle disease.

We are adopting as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that amended the swine health protection regulations to clarify the applicability of the regulations regarding the treatment of garbage that consists of industrially processed materials. The interim rule made clear that such materials are subject to the same treatment requirements as other regulated garbage, except for materials that meet the definition of processed product that we added to the regulations in the interim rule. The interim rule was necessary to ensure that garbage fed to swine has been treated to inactivate disease organisms that pose a risk to the U.S. swine industry.

We are amending the regulations regarding the National Veterinary Accreditation Program to establish two accreditation categories in place of the former single category, to add requirements for supplemental training and renewal of accreditation, and to offer program certifications. We are making these changes in order to support the Agency's animal health safeguarding initiatives, to involve accredited veterinarians in integrated surveillance activities, and to make the provisions governing our National Veterinary Accreditation Program more uniform and consistent. These changes will increase the level of training and skill of accredited veterinarians in the areas of disease prevention and preparedness for animal health emergencies in the United States.

We are advising the public that we have prepared a proposed environmental assessment relative to oral rabies vaccination programs in several States. Since the publication of our original environmental assessment and decision/finding of no significant impact in 2001, we have prepared, and made available to the public for comment, several supplemental environmental assessments and decisions/findings of no significant impact in order to reflect changes in the program. The new environmental assessment made available by this notice analyzes the further expansion the oral rabies vaccination program to include the States of New Mexico and Arizona, which is necessary to effectively combat the gray fox variant of the rabies virus. The new environmental assessment is intended to facilitate planning and interagency coordination in the event of rabies outbreaks, help streamline program management, and clearly communicate to the public the actions involved in the oral rabies vaccination program.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request an extension of approval of an information collection associated with regulations for the importation of live fish, fertilized eggs, and gametes to prevent the introduction of spring viremia of carp into the United States.

We are amending the Asian longhorned beetle regulations by adding a portion of Worcester County, MA, to the list of quarantined areas and updating the description of the quarantined area in the Borough of Staten Island in the City of New York, NY. This action will restrict the interstate movement of regulated articles from these areas. This interim rule is necessary to prevent the artificial spread of the Asian longhorned beetle to noninfested areas of the United States.

We are advising the public that we have made changes to the area in the State of Idaho that is quarantined to prevent the spread of pale cyst nematode. The description of the quarantined area was updated on May 22, 2009, when 1,834 acres were removed from the quarantined area, and on June 3, 2009, when an additional 283 acres were removed from the quarantined area.

We are amending the regulations to allow the importation of commercial consignments of tomatoes from the Souss-Massa-Draa region of Morocco subject to a systems approach similar to that which is already in place for tomatoes imported into the United States from other areas within Morocco. The tomatoes will have to be produced under conditions that include requirements for pest exclusion at the production site, fruit fly trapping inside the production site, and pest-exclusionary packinghouse procedures. The tomatoes will also be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the Moroccan national plant protection organization with an additional declaration stating that the tomatoes have been grown in registered pest- exclusionary structures in the Souss-Massa-Draa region and were pink at the time of packing. This action will allow for the importation of commercial consignments of tomatoes from the Souss-Massa-Draa region of Morocco into the United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests.

PHMSA is considering amending the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) by incorporating various amendments to international standards and modal regulations, including changes to proper shipping names, hazard classes, packing groups, special provisions, and packaging authorizations. These amendments may be necessary to harmonize the HMR with revised editions of the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods Model Regulations and Manual of Tests and Criteria, the International Maritime Organization's Dangerous Goods Code, the International Civil Aviation Organization's Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air and Transport Canada's Transport of Dangerous Goods Regulations. In this notice, we are soliciting public comment regarding the safety consequences, regulatory burden, and cost implications of some of the more significant amendments adopted or under consideration for adoption in these international standards.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request an extension of approval of an information collection associated with regulations for the transit of untreated oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit from Mexico through the United States to other foreign countries.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service intends to prepare an environmental impact statement relative to proposed regulatory requirements that are being developed for the movement of plant pests, biological control organisms, and associated articles. This notice identifies potential issues and alternatives that will be studied in the environmental impact statement and requests public comment to further delineate the scope of those issues and alternatives.

We are amending the noxious weed regulations by adding Old World climbing fern (Lygodium microphyllum (Cavanilles) R. Brown) and maidenhair creeper (Lygodium flexuosum (Linnaeus) Swartz) to the list of terrestrial noxious weeds. This action is necessary to prevent the artificial spread of these noxious weeds into the United States.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is making a concept paper describing a new direction for the bovine brucellosis program available for public review and comment. The cooperative Federal-State-industry effort to eradicate bovine brucellosis from cattle in the United States has made significant progress since the program's inception in 1934. However, unique challenges impede eradication. The concept paper we are making available presents our current thinking about changes we are planning

We are proposing to amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to include more specific requirements in the regulations concerning the submission of itineraries by any person who is subject to the Animal Welfare Act regulations and who intends to exhibit any animal at any location other than the person's approved site(s). We believe APHIS' inspectors' access to animals, facilities, and records for unannounced inspections when animals are exhibited at a location other than at a regulated person's approved site(s) is necessary to improve compliance with the regulations and the Animal Welfare Act.

We are amending the regulations concerning overtime services provided by employees of the Agency's Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) program by adding or amending commuted traveltime allowances for travel between certain locations in the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, and Minnesota. Commuted traveltime allowances are the periods of time required for PPQ employees to travel from their dispatch points and return there from the places where they perform Sunday, holiday, or other overtime duty. The Government charges a fee for certain overtime services provided by PPQ employees and, under certain circumstances, the fee may include the cost of commuted traveltime. This action is necessary to inform the public of commuted traveltime for these locations.

This notice pertains to user fees charged for import- and export-related services that we provide for animals, animal products, birds, germ plasm, organisms, and vectors and for certain veterinary diagnostic services. The purpose of this notice is to remind the public of the user fees for fiscal year 2010 (October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2010).

We are adopting as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that amended the bovine tuberculosis regulations by establishing two separate zones with different tuberculosis risk classifications for the State of New Mexico. Prior to the interim rule, the entire State of New Mexico had been classified as modified accredited advanced; however, all its affected herds were located in Curry and Roosevelt Counties, NM, along the State's eastern border. The interim rule was necessary to relieve restrictions on the interstate movement of cattle and bison from areas of New Mexico outside those two counties.

We are advising the public of our determination regarding the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) subtype H5N1 status of Suffolk and Norfolk Counties, England, following outbreaks in 2007. Based on an evaluation of the animal health status of Suffolk and Norfolk Counties, England, which we made available to the public for review and comment through a previous notice, the Administrator has determined that the importation of live birds, poultry carcasses, parts or products of poultry carcasses, and eggs (other than hatching eggs) of poultry, game birds, and other birds from Suffolk and Norfolk Counties, England, presents a low risk of introducing HPAI H5N1 into the United States.

We are amending the gypsy moth regulations by adding areas in Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Ohio, and Virginia to the list of generally infested areas based on the detection of infestations of gypsy moth in those areas. As a result of this action, the interstate movement of regulated articles from those areas is restricted. This action is necessary to prevent the artificial spread of the gypsy moth to noninfested areas of the United States.

We are proposing to amend the list of regulated articles in our domestic fruit fly quarantine regulations. The regulations currently indicate that smooth-skinned lemons (all varieties of Citrus limon) harvested for packing by commercial packinghouses are not regulated articles for Mediterranean fruit fly. We are proposing to amend the regulations to designate all yellow lemons as regulated articles. This proposed change is based on research indicating that, under certain conditions, yellow lemons are a host for Mediterranean fruit fly. As a result of this proposed action, yellow lemons produced in an area quarantined for Mediterranean fruit fly would be subject to certain interstate movement restrictions in order to prevent the spread of that pest into uninfested areas of the United States.

We are extending the comment period for our notice that would recognize 16 additional magisterial districts in 3 provinces as pest- free areas for citrus black spot in the Republic of South Africa. This action will allow interested persons additional time to prepare and submit comments.