Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service June 10, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request approval by the Office of Management and Budget of an information collection associated with wildlife damage management programs.

We are proposing to amend the regulations to revise the approved doses for irradiation treatment of imported fruits and vegetables. This proposal would establish a new minimum generic dose of irradiation for most arthropod plant pests, establish a new minimum generic dose for the fruit fly family, reduce the minimum dose of irradiation for some specific fruit fly species, and add nine pests to the list of pests for which irradiation is an approved treatment. These actions would allow the use of irradiation to neutralize more pests and to neutralize some pests at lower doses. Furthermore, we are proposing to provide for the irradiation of fruits and vegetables moved interstate from Hawaii at the pest-specific irradiation doses that are now approved for imported fruits and vegetables. We are also proposing to provide for the use of irradiation to treat fruits and vegetables moved interstate from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These actions would allow irradiation to serve as an alternative to other approved treatments for additional fruits and vegetables moved interstate from Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Finally, we are proposing to add irradiation as a treatment for bananas from Hawaii and to add vapor-heat treatment as an optional treatment for sweetpotatoes from Hawaii. These actions would provide an alternative to the currently approved treatments for those commodities while continuing to provide protection against the spread of plant pests from Hawaii into the continental United States.