Utah Administrative Code
Topic - Agriculture and Food
Title R58 - Animal Industry
Rule R58-17 - Aquaculture and Aquatic Animal Health
Section R58-17-2 - Definitions

(1) "Aquaculture" means the controlled cultivation of aquatic animals. In this rule, the word "aquaculture" refers to commercial aquaculture.

(2) "Aquaculture facility" means any tank, canal, raceway, pond, off-stream reservoir, aquatic animal processing plant, or other structure used for aquaculture or to display live aquaculture products before sale.

(3) "Aquatic animal" means an individual or gamete of any species of fish, mollusk, crustacean, or amphibian.

(4) "Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy" is a policy adopted and approved by the Board that establishes guidelines for pathogen testing.

(5) "Aquatic animal processing plant" means a facility, grocery store, processing plant, or other facility pursuant to Rule R58-27 that receives live or dead aquatic animals to produce food products that are manufactured, canned, processed, packaged, stored, transported, prepared, sold, or offered for sale.

(6) "Aquatic reselling" is an activity permitted by a Board issued variance. The aquatic reselling variance permits a health approved aquaculture facility to acquire and culture aquatic animals from another health approved source and to sell the aquatic animals live without obtaining a facility health approval for that aquatic animal.

(7) "Blue Book" means the procedures approved by the American Fisheries Society for inspecting the health of aquatic animals, specifically: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and American Fisheries Society-Fish Health Section, Blue Book: Suggested Procedures for the Detection and Identification of Certain Finfish and Shellfish Pathogens, 2020 edition, which is incorporated by reference.

(8) "Brokers or aquatic animal brokering" means the practice where an aquaculture facility with health approval facilitates the buying, selling, exchanging, or transferring live aquatic animals between a health approved facility and a stocking destination pursuant to Section R58-17-10. Brokered animals are directly transferred from the source to the destination and do not enter the waters of the brokers facility.

(9) "Certificate of Registration (COR)" means an official document that licenses facilities and events with the division. The purpose of the COR is to establish the legal description of the facility, the species of aquatic animals reared, and to grant the authority to engage in the described activity.

(10) "Confirmed finding" means the presumptive evidence for a pathogen has been validated by required procedures in the Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy.

(11) "Department" means the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

(12) "Disease History" means a record of any known pathogens that have historically affected aquatic animals reared at a facility that seeks health approval pursuant to Section R58-17-5.

(13) "Division" means the Division of Wildlife Resources in the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

(14) "Emergency Response Procedures" are included in Section R58-17-7 and are to be activated any time prohibited or restricted pathogen is reported pursuant to Section R58-17-4.

(15) "Emergency Response Team" means teams defined by Section R58-17-7. Teams are responsible for developing and executing action plans to respond to and report confirmed findings of prohibited or restricted pathogens pursuant to Section R58-17-4.

(16) "Endemic area" means a location where a pathogen has been detected and is considered to be established in an area.

(17) "Entry Permit" means an official document issued by the department that grants permission to the permit holder to import aquatic animals into Utah pursuant to Section R58-17-12. An entry permit is issued for up to 30 days and stipulates the species, size or age, weight, and source of aquatic animals to be imported.

(18) "Fee fishing facility" means a body of water used for holding or rearing aquatic animals for providing fishing for a fee or for pecuniary consideration or advantage pursuant to Section 4-37-103.

(19) "Fish Health Policy Board" or "Board" means the board created pursuant to Section 4-37-503.

(20) "Free range" means naturally born or hatchery-raised aquatic animals that reside in natural or developed waters such as a lake, reservoir or stream, and are managed by state and federal agencies.

(21) "Health approved" or "Health approval" means a system that provides statistical assurance that prohibited or restricted pathogens are not present in a facility or population of aquatic animals.

(22) "Health inspection" means an on-site inspection by a certified inspector for each facility, brood stock location, or free range location in accordance with Section R58-17-5 and the Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy.

(23) "Import" or "importation" means to bring live aquatic animals, by any means, into Utah from any location outside the state and to subsequently possess and use them for any purpose.

(24) "License" means an official document issued by the department pursuant to Rule R58-27 authorizing the use of aquatic animals at fee fishing and aquaculture facilities.

(25)

(26) "Lot" means fish of the same species that are subject to a health inspection. The Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy establishes guidelines for lot designation for salmonid and non-salmonid fish.

(27) "Non-salmonid" means any species of aquatic animal that is not of the order Salmoniformes.

(28) "OIE" means the Office International des Epizooties of the World Organization for Animal Health, an intergovernmental organization that was established in 1924 to promote world animal health. The OIE Aquatic Manual, 2021 edition, which provides guidelines and standards for aquatic animal health testing that may be included in the Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy, is incorporated by reference.

(29) "Ornamental aquatic animal species" means any species of fish, mollusk, or crustacean that is sold in the United States aquarium industry for display.

(30) "Private fish pond" means a body of water where privately owned aquatic animals are propagated or kept for a private, non-commercial purpose. "Private fish pond" does not include any aquaculture facility or fee fishing facility.

(31) "Procedures for Timely Reporting and the Emergency Response to Pathogens" means the procedures described in Section R58-17-7 for reporting detections of prohibited, restricted or reportable pathogens in Utah or from any out-of-state health approved sources and the initial response to the detection.

(32) "Prohibited pathogen" means a pathogen that is listed in the Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy. These pathogens can cause high morbidity or high mortality and require action in a reasonable time. Prohibited pathogens are difficult or impossible to treat.

(33) "Public aquaculture facility" means a tank, canal, raceway, pond, off-stream reservoir, or other structure used for aquaculture by the division, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a mosquito abatement district, or an institution of higher education. Structures that are separated by more than 1/2 mile, or structures that drain to or are modified to drain into different drainages, are considered separate public aquaculture facilities.

(34) "Public fishery resource" means aquatic animals produced in public aquaculture facilities, or, purchased or acquired for public fishery waters and sustained as free range populations in the surface waters of the state.

(35) "Quarantine" means the restriction of movement of live or dead aquatic animals regardless of age and of all equipment and hauling vehicles into or from a quarantine area designated by the Commissioner of Agriculture or State Veterinarian pursuant to Section R58-17-8 and Agricultural code 4-31-16 and 17.

(36) "Reportable pathogen" means a pathogen that is listed in the Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy and includes pathogens in the National Reportable Animal Disease List.

(37) "Restricted Pathogen" means a pathogen that is listed in the Aquatic Animal Health Inspection Policy. These pathogens are capable of causing fish losses, but they are treatable or manageable through existing technology or effective management practices.

(38) "Restricted Health Approval '' means a limited health approval granted by the department or the divsion to facilities or waters that have tested negative for prohibited pathogens but positive for restricted pathogens.

(39) "Salmonid" means any species of aquatic animal that is of the order Salmoniformes and optimally lives in coldwater conditions.

(40) "Source" means the origin of an aquatic animal including all rearing or holding locations during all life stages.

(41) "Surrogate species" means an aquatic animal that is known to exhibit similar pathogen susceptibility to an aquatic animal of interest.

(42) "Water source" means a separate spring, lake, river, stream, creek, well, or aquifer. A facility or location that combines multiple water sources within the facility or location will be considered to have a single water source.