7 CFR § 340.3 - Definitions.

Terms used in the singular form in this part shall be construed as the plural, and vice versa, as the case may demand. The following terms, when used in this part, shall be construed, respectively, to mean:

Access. The ability during regular business hours to enter, or pass to and from, a location, inspect, and/or obtain or make use or copies of any records, data, or samples necessary to evaluate compliance with this part and all conditions of a permit issued in accordance with § 340.5.

Administrator. The Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) or any other employee of APHIS to whom authority has been or may be delegated to act in the Administrator's stead.

Agent. A person who is designated by the responsible person to act in whole or in part on behalf of the permittee to maintain control over an organism under permit during its movement and to ensure compliance with all applicable permit conditions and the requirements in this part. Multiple agents may be associated with a single responsible person or permit. Agents may be, but are not limited to, brokers, farmers, researchers, or site cooperators. An agent must be at least 18 years of age and be a legal resident of the United States.

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). An agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Article. Any material or tangible object that could harbor plant pests.

Contained facility. A structure for the storage and/or propagation of living organisms designed with physical barriers capable of preventing the escape of the organisms. Examples include but are not limited to laboratories, growth chambers, fermenters, and containment greenhouses.

Donor organism. The organism from which genetic material is obtained for transfer to the recipient organism.

Environment. All the land, air, and water; and all living organisms in association with land, air, and water.

Gene pool. Germplasm within which sexual recombination is possible as a result of hybridization, including via methods such as embryo culture or bridging crosses.

Genetic engineering. Techniques that use recombinant, synthesized, or amplified nucleic acids to modify or create a genome.

Import (importation). To move into, or the act of movement into, the territorial limits of the United States.

Inspector. Any individual authorized by the Administrator or by the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, to enforce the regulations in this part.

Interstate. From one State into or through any other State or within the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, or any other territory or possession of the United States.

Mechanism of action (MOA). The biochemical process(es) through which genetic material determines a trait.

Move (moving, movement). To carry, enter, import, mail, ship, or transport; aid, abet, cause, or induce the carrying, entering, importing, mailing, shipping, or transporting; to offer to carry, enter, import, mail, ship, or transport; to receive to carry, enter, import, mail, ship, or transport; to release into the environment; or to allow any of the above activities to occur.

Organism. Any active, infective, or dormant stage of life form of an entity characterized as living, including vertebrate and invertebrate animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, mycoplasmas, mycoplasma-like organisms, as well as entities such as viroids, viruses, or any entity characterized as living, related to the foregoing.

Permit. A written authorization, including by electronic methods, by the Administrator to move organisms regulated under this part and associated articles under conditions prescribed by the Administrator.

Person. Any individual, partnership, corporation, company, society, association, or other organized group.

Plant. Any plant (including any plant part) for or capable of propagation, including a tree, a tissue culture, a plantlet culture, pollen, a shrub, a vine, a cutting, a graft, a scion, a bud, a bulb, a root, or a seed.

Plant pest. Any living stage of a protozoan, nonhuman animal, parasitic plant, bacterium, fungus, virus or viroid, infectious agent or other pathogen, or any article similar to or allied with any of the foregoing, that can directly or indirectly injure, cause damage to, or cause disease in any plant or plant product.

Plant pest risk. The potential for direct or indirect injury to, damage to, or disease in any plant or plant product resulting from introducing or disseminating a plant pest, or the potential for exacerbating the impact of a plant pest.

Plant product.

(1) Any flower, fruit, vegetable, root, bulb, seed, or other plant part that is not included in the definition of plant; or

(2) Any manufactured or processed plant or plant part.

Recipient organism. The organism whose nucleic acid sequence will be modified through the use of genetic engineering.

Release into the environment (environmental release). The use of an organism outside the physical constraints of a contained facility.

Responsible person. The individual responsible for maintaining control over a GE organism under permit during its movement and for ensuring compliance with all conditions contained in any applicable permit as well as with other requirements in this part and in the Plant Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.). This individual must sign the permit application, and must be at least 18 years of age, and must be a legal resident of the United States.

Secure shipment. Shipment in a container or a means of conveyance of sufficient strength and integrity to withstand leakage of contents, shocks, pressure changes, and other conditions incident to ordinary handling in transportation.

State. Any of the several States of the United States, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, or any other territories or possessions of the United States.

State or Tribal regulatory official. State or Tribal official with responsibilities for plant health, or any other duly designated State or Tribal official, in the State or on the Tribal lands where the movement is to take place.

Trait. An observable (able to be seen or otherwise identified) characteristic of an organism.

Unauthorized release. The intentional or accidental movement of an organism under a permit issued pursuant to this part in a manner not authorized by the permit; or the intentional or accidental movement without a permit of an organism that is subject to the regulations in this part.