0
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is proposing changes to regulations governing requests to conduct animal health status evaluations. These evaluations are conducted at the request of foreign nations in order to determine eligibility for importing animals and animal products into the United States.
The proposed changes will clarify the information requested from the foreign nations to allow for a more expeditious evaluation process. These actions support government initiatives to make regulations clearer and easier to understand.
USDA is proposing to reorganize the breakdown of information into eight factors to eliminate the overlap and make the request easier to understand and respond to accurately. The type of information needed will not change substantively from what is currently required.
USDA’s also proposing to create separate criteria to establish that an area is historically free of a specific animal disease. These criteria follow the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) recommendations. Countries would support their request with information about six factors if they are seeking to be evaluated as historically free of the specific disease.
Thursday, December 29, 2011/ APHIS-USDA/ United States.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/
