9 CFR 98 - IMPORTATION OF CERTAIN ANIMAL EMBRYOS AND ANIMAL SEMEN

We are removing lists of regions classified with respect to certain animal diseases and pests, and lists of States approved to receive horses imported from foreign regions where contagious equine metritis (CEM) exists, from our animal and animal product import regulations. Instead, the lists will be posted on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS') Web site. The regulations will provide the Web address and explain APHIS' criteria and processes for adding a region or a State to, or removing a region or State from, each of the lists. Because the lists will no longer be in the Code of Federal Regulations, changing the lists will no longer require rulemaking. We will keep the public informed of changes to the lists and provide opportunity for public comment through publications in the Federal Register . This rule will enable APHIS to more quickly recognize changes in the disease or pest status of foreign regions and approve States to receive horses from foreign regions where CEM exists. This rulemaking does not change the technical criteria APHIS uses to evaluate whether a foreign region should be added to or removed from a list or the criteria for approving a State to receive horses imported from foreign regions where CEM exists.

We are amending the regulations governing the importation of animals and animal products to add Liechtenstein and Switzerland to the region of Europe that we recognize as low risk for classical swine fever (CSF). We are also adding Liechtenstein to the list of regions we consider free from swine vesicular disease (SVD) and to the list of regions considered free from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and rinderpest. These actions will relieve some restrictions on the importation into the United States of certain animals and animal products from those regions, while continuing to protect against the introduction of CSF, SVD, FMD, and rinderpest into the United States.

We are proposing to remove lists of regions classified with respect to certain animal diseases and pests from our animal and animal product import regulations and, instead, post them to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS') Web site. The regulations would provide the Web address and would explain APHIS' criteria and process for adding a region to, or removing a region from, each of the lists. The technical criteria APHIS uses to evaluate whether a region should be added to or removed from a list would not change. We are also proposing to remove lists of States approved to receive horses imported from foreign regions where we consider contagious equine metritis to exist and, instead, post approved States to our Web site. The criteria for approving a State would not change. We would continue to provide an opportunity for public comment on changes to the lists. This action would enable the Agency to respond more quickly to changes in the disease status of regions.

We are proposing to amend the regulations governing the importation of animals and animal products to add Liechtenstein and Switzerland to the region of Europe that we recognize as low risk for classical swine fever (CSF). We are also proposing to add Liechtenstein to the list of regions we consider free from swine vesicular disease (SVD) and to the list of regions considered free from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and rinderpest. These proposed actions would relieve some restrictions on the importation into the United States of certain animals and animal products from those regions, while continuing to protect against the introduction of CSF, SVD, FMD, and rinderpest into the United States.

We are proposing to amend the regulations governing the importation of animals and animal products to add Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia to the region of the European Union that we recognize as a low-risk region for classical swine fever (CSF). Swine, swine semen, pork, and pork products may be imported into the United States from this region under certain conditions. We are proposing to remove one of these conditions, a 40-day holding period for swine semen and donor boars after the collection of swine semen, based on our determination that it is unnecessary. We are also proposing to add Estonia, Slovakia, and Slovenia to the list of regions we consider free of swine vesicular disease (SVD) and to add Slovakia and Slovenia to the list of regions considered free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and rinderpest. These proposed actions would relieve some restrictions on the importation into the United States of certain animals and animal products from those regions, while continuing to protect against the introduction of CSF, SVD, FMD, and rinderpest into the United States.