Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service January 31, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are proposing to amend the regulations for importing animals and animal products by adding the Mexican State of Nayarit to the list of regions considered free of classical swine fever (CSF). We are proposing this action at the request of the Mexican Government and the State of Nayarit, and after conducting a risk evaluation that indicates that Nayarit is free of this disease. We are also proposing to add Nayarit to the list of CSF-affected regions whose exports of live swine, pork, and pork products to the United States must meet certain certification requirements to ensure their freedom from CSF. These actions would relieve certain CSF-related restrictions on the importation into the United States of pork, pork products, live swine, and swine semen from Nayarit while continuing to protect against the introduction of this disease into the United States.

We are proposing to amend the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act regulations concerning testing for avian lymphoid leukosis in veterinary biologics to specify that the test is for the detection of extraneous replicating avian leukosis virus; require such testing to be conducted using a procedure that will detect extraneous replicating avian leukosis virus and that is acceptable to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; require firms to develop a procedure to test for lymphoid leukosis virus contamination in the case of vaccine virus cytopathic to chick embryo cell cultures; and specify the equivalent inoculum dose of vaccine to be used when testing certain specified chicken vaccines for lymphoid leukosis virus. These proposed changes would update the testing for lymphoid leukosis virus contamination by prescribing a test procedure that increases the probability of detecting atypical lymphoid leukosis viruses such as those recently found in a contaminated vaccine.