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

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will be holding four public forums to gather public comment on a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) related to our consideration of revisions to our regulations regarding the importation, interstate movement, and environmental release of genetically engineered organisms.

We are proposing to increase the user fees for the veterinary diagnostic services to reflect changes in our operating costs and expenses. We are also proposing to set rates for multiple fiscal years. These proposed actions are necessary to ensure that we recover the actual costs of providing these services. We are also proposing to provide for a reasonable balance, or reserve, in the veterinary diagnostics user fee account. The Food, Agriculture, and Conservation Act of 1990, as amended, authorizes us to set and collect these user fees.

We are adopting as a final rule, with several changes, an interim rule that, among other things, amended the regulations to allow for the use of additional numbering systems for purposes of animal and premises identification. As amended by this document, the rule recognizes additional numbering systems for the identification of animals in interstate commerce and State/Tribe/Federal/industry cooperative disease control and eradication programs. Additionally, the rule amends the regulations to authorize the use of a numbering system to identify premises where animals are managed or held. These regulatory changes are necessary to allow the use, for official purposes, of the new numbering systems in the National Animal Identification System. Use of the new numbering systems is not required by this final rule.

We are advising the public that we have prepared a pest risk analysis that evaluates the risks associated with the importation into the continental United States of peeled baby carrots from Kenya. Based on that analysis, we believe that the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds via the importation of peeled baby carrots from Kenya. We are making the pest risk analysis available for review and comment.

We are advising the public that we have prepared a pest risk analysis that evaluates the risks associated with the importation into the continental United States of Ribes species fruits (i.e., currants and gooseberries) from South Africa. Based on that analysis, we believe that the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds via the importation of Ribes species fruits from South Africa. We are making the pest risk analysis available for review and comment.

We are revising and reorganizing 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 are also making substantive changes to the regulations, including: Establishing criteria that, if met, will 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 and doing away with the practice of listing in the regulations specific commodities that may be imported subject to certain types of phytosanitary measures. These changes are intended to simplify and expedite our processes for approving certain new imports and pest-free areas while continuing to allow for full public participation in the processes. This rule revises the structure of the fruits and vegetables import regulations and establishes a new process for approving certain new commodities for importation into the United States. It does not, however, allow the importation of any specific new fruits or vegetables, nor does it alter the conditions for importing currently approved fruits or vegetables except as specifically described in this document. To the extent that our trading partners consider the length of time it takes to conduct the rulemaking process a trade barrier, these changes may facilitate the export of U.S. agricultural commodities by reducing that time for fruits and vegetables that meet this rule's criteria. The changes do not alter the manner in which the risk associated with a commodity import request is evaluated, nor do they alter the manner in which those risks are ultimately mitigated.

We are proposing to amend the gypsy moth regulations by making editorial and nonsubstantive changes to several terms and providing necessary updates throughout the regulations. These actions would improve the clarity and consistency of the regulations while continuing to provide protection against the artificial spread of gypsy moth into noninfested areas of the United States.

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 horses, ruminants, swine, and dogs from regions of the world where screwworm is considered to exist.

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 export of poultry and poultry hatching eggs from the United States.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request a reinstatement of an information collection to support the National Animal Health Monitoring System national Beef 2007-08 Study.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request a revision and extension of approval of an information collection associated with regulations for the importation of live swine, pork, and pork products from eight Mexican States into the United States.

We are amending the phytosanitary treatment regulations by making several changes to the requirements for cold treatment enclosures and the requirements for conducting cold treatment. The changes include: Adding more specific and stringent requirements for precooling fruit prior to cold treatment, requiring the use of temperature recording devices that are password-protected and tamperproof, adding requirements to increase the effectiveness of cold treatment conducted in vessel holds, and providing for officials authorized by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to conduct audits of the cold treatment process. We are making these changes in response to the results of external and internal reviews of the cold treatment requirements that have been in place. The changes we are making will improve the effectiveness of cold treatment and thus will help to prevent the introduction of quarantine plant pests into the United States.

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 provisions of the Animal Welfare Act regulations for the humane transportation of animals in commerce.

This notice advises the public of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Record of Decision for the Resident Canada Goose Management Final Environmental Impact Statement.

We are amending the Mexican fruit fly regulations by removing a portion of Webb County, TX, from the list of quarantined areas and by removing restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles from this area. This action is necessary to relieve restrictions that are no longer needed to prevent the spread of the Mexican fruit fly into noninfested areas of the United States. We have determined that the Mexican fruit fly has been eradicated from this portion of Webb County, TX, and that the quarantine and restrictions are no longer necessary.

We are proposing to amend the citrus canker regulations to modify the conditions under which fruit may be moved interstate from a quarantined area. Under this proposed rule, we would eliminate the requirement that the groves in which the fruit is produced be inspected and found free of citrus canker, and instead require that fruit produced in the quarantined area be treated with a surface disinfectant treatment in a packinghouse operating under a compliance agreement and that each lot of finished fruit be inspected at the packinghouse and found free of visible symptoms of citrus canker. We would, however, retain the current prohibition on the movement of fruit from a quarantined area into commercial citrus-producing States. These proposed changes would relieve some restrictions on the interstate movement of fresh citrus fruit from Florida while maintaining conditions that would help prevent the artificial spread of citrus canker.

We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prepared an environmental assessment for a proposed field trial involving two genetically engineered strains of the bacterium Burkholderia glumae. Burkholderia glumae is a plant pathogen that causes panicle blight in rice. The purpose of this field test is to conduct experiments that will provide information on the pathogenicity of Burkholderia glumae and will assist in the development of control methods to reduce yield loss caused by panicle blight. We are making the environmental assessment available to the public for review and comment.

We are correcting an error in our proposed rule to amend the regulations to allow the importation into the continental United States of fresh blueberries from South Africa and Uruguay under certain conditions and to allow the use of cold treatment for blueberries imported into the United States from Argentina. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on June 5, 2007 (72 FR 30979-30984, Docket No. APHIS 2007-0061).

We are proposing to amend the user fee regulations by adjusting the fees charged for export certification of plants and plant products. We are proposing to increase these user fees for fiscal years 2007 through 2012 to reflect the anticipated costs associated with providing these services during each year. We are also proposing to add a new user fee for Federal export certificates for plants and plant products that an exporter obtains from a State or county cooperator in order to recover our administrative costs associated with that service. Finally, we are proposing to make several nonsubstantive changes to the regulations for clarity. These proposed changes would enable us to properly recover the costs of providing export certification services for plants and plant products.

We are amending the black stem rust quarantine and regulations by adding four varieties to the list of rust-resistant Berberis species or cultivars in the regulations. This action will allow for the interstate movement of these newly developed varieties without unnecessary restrictions.

We are proposing to allow the importation into the continental United States of fresh blueberries from South Africa and Uruguay under certain conditions. As a condition of entry, the blueberries would have to undergo cold treatment and would have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the national plant protection organization of the exporting country. This action would allow for the importation of blueberries from South Africa and Uruguay into the continental United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests. In addition, we are proposing to allow the use of cold treatment for blueberries imported into the United States from Argentina. This action would provide an alternative to the methyl bromide treatment that is currently required for blueberries imported from Argentina.

We are establishing regulations to prohibit or restrict the importation of certain articles from Canada that present a risk of being infested with emerald ash borer. This action is necessary to prevent the artificial spread of this plant pest from infested areas in Canada to noninfested areas of the United States and to prevent further introductions of this plant pest into the United States.

We are amending the regulations for the importation of unmanufactured wood articles to bring the methyl bromide treatment schedule into alignment with current international phytosanitary standards. This action is necessary because international phytosanitary standards have changed and the regulations need to be updated to reflect current standards.