Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service August 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are adopting as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that amended the gypsy moth regulations by adding one county in Ohio, one county in West Virginia, and two counties in Wisconsin to the list of generally infested areas based on the detection of infestations of gypsy moth in those counties. As a result of the interim rule, the interstate movement of regulated articles from those areas is restricted. The interim rule was necessary to prevent the artificial spread of the gypsy moth to noninfested States.

We are adopting as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that amended the emerald ash borer regulations by adding areas in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio to the list of areas quarantined because of emerald ash borer. As a result of the interim rule, the interstate movement of regulated articles from those areas is restricted. The interim rule was necessary to prevent the artificial spread of the emerald ash borer from infested areas in the States of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio into noninfested areas of the United States.

Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App. II), we are giving notice of a meeting of the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Foreign Animal and Poultry Diseases.

We are amending the foreign quarantine and user fee regulations by removing the exemptions from inspection for imported fruits and vegetables grown in Canada and the exemptions from user fees for commercial vessels, commercial trucks, commercial railroad cars, commercial aircraft, and international air passengers entering the United States from Canada. As a result of this action, all agricultural products imported from Canada will be subject to inspection, and commercial conveyances, as well as airline passengers arriving on flights from Canada, will be subject to inspection and user fees. We are taking this action in part because we are not recovering the costs of our current inspection activities at the U.S./Canada border. In addition, our data show an increasing number of interceptions on the U.S./Canada border of prohibited material that originated in regions other than Canada that presents a high risk of introducing plant pests or animal diseases into the United States. These findings, combined with additional Canadian airport preclearance data on interceptions of ineligible agricultural products approaching the U.S. border from Canada, strongly indicate that we need to expand and strengthen our pest exclusion and smuggling interdiction efforts at that border. In order to do this and to recover the costs of our existing inspection activity, we need to collect user fees for inspection of commercial conveyances and international air passengers entering the United States from Canada.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prepared an environmental assessment concerning authorization to ship for the purpose of field testing, and then to field test, an unlicensed Fowl Laryngotracheitis-Marek's Disease Vaccine, Serotype 3, Live Marek's Disease Vector. The environmental assessment, which is based on a risk analysis prepared to assess the risks associated with the field testing of this vaccine, examines the potential effects that field testing this veterinary vaccine could have on the quality of the human environment. Based on the risk analysis, we have reached a preliminary determination that field testing this veterinary vaccine will not have a significant impact on the quality of the human environment, and that an environmental impact statement need not be prepared. We intend to authorize shipment of this vaccine for field testing following the close of the comment period for this notice unless new substantial issues bearing on the effects of this action are brought to our attention. We also intend to issue a U.S. Veterinary Biological Product license for this vaccine, provided the field test data support the conclusions of the environmental assessment and the issuance of a finding of no significant impact and the product meets all other requirements for licensing.

We are amending the regulations pertaining to certain garbage to provide for the interstate movement of garbage from Hawaii subject to measures designed to protect against the dissemination of plant pests into noninfested areas of the continental United States. We are amending these regulations upon request in order to provide the State of Hawaii with additional waste disposal options, and after determining that the action is highly unlikely to result in the introduction and dissemination of plant or animal pests or diseases into the continental United States from Hawaii. We are also making other amendments to the garbage regulations to clarify their intent and make them easier to understand.

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 the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey.

In a final rule published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2005, we amended the regulations regarding the importation of animals and animal products to establish a category of regions that present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) into the United States via live ruminants and ruminant products and byproducts, and we added Canada to this category. We also established conditions for the importation of certain live ruminants and ruminant products and byproducts from such regions. In this document, we are proposing to remove several restrictions regarding the identification of animals and the processing of ruminant materials from BSE minimal-risk regions, as well as BSE-based restrictions on gelatin derived from bovine hides. We do not believe these restrictions are necessary to prevent the introduction of BSE into the United States.

We are proposing to amend the regulations regarding the importation of animal germplasm by removing specific restrictions on sheep semen from regions where scrapie exists and requiring the inclusion of additional information on the international health certificate accompanying sheep and goat semen. Experience and research have convinced us that sheep and goat semen pose a minimal risk of transmitting scrapie. This action would relieve restrictions on imported sheep semen while continuing to provide safeguards against the introduction and dissemination of scrapie.

We are reopening the comment period for our proposed rule to revise and reorganize the regulations pertaining to the importation of fruits and vegetables to consolidate requirements of general applicability and eliminate redundant requirements, update terms and remove outdated requirements and references, update the regulations that apply to importations into territories under U.S. administration, and make various editorial and nonsubstantive changes to regulations to make them easier to use. We also proposed to make substantive changes to the regulations, including: Establishing criteria within the regulations that, if met, would allow us to approve certain new fruits and vegetables for importation into the United States and to acknowledge pest-free areas in foreign countries more effectively and expeditiously; doing away with the practice of listing specific commodities that may be imported subject to certain types of phytosanitary measures; and providing for the issuance of special use permits for fruits and vegetables. The proposed changes are intended to simplify and expedite our processes for approving certain new imports and pest-free areas while continuing to allow for public participation in the processes. This action will allow interested persons additional time to prepare and submit comments.