9 CFR § 94.0 - Definitions.

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§ 94.0 Definitions.

As used in this part, the following terms shall have the meanings set forth in this section.

Administrator. The Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or any person authorized to act for the Administrator.

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, of the United States Department of Agriculture (APHIS.)

APHIS-defined European CSF region. A single region of Europe recognized by APHIS as low risk for classical swine fever.

(1) A list of areas included in the region is maintained on the APHIS website at https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animalhealth/disease-status-of-regions. Copies of the list are also available via postal mail or email upon request to Regionalization Evaluation Services, Strategy and Policy, Veterinary Services, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, 4700 River Road, Unit 38, Riverdale, Maryland 20737; AskRegionalization@usda.gov.

(2) APHIS will add an area to the region after it conducts an evaluation of the area to be added in accordance with § 92.2 of this subchapter and finds that the risk profile for the area is equivalent with respect to classical swine fever to the risk profile for the region it is joining.

APHIS-defined European Poultry Trade Region. A single region consisting of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales), Greece, Hungary, Ireland (Republic of), Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

APHIS representative. An individual employed by Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture, who is authorized to perform the function involved.

Approved establishment means an establishment authorized by Veterinary Services for the receipt and handling of restricted imported animal carcasses, products, and byproducts.

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

Birds. All members of the class Aves (other than poultry or game birds).

Bovine. Bos taurus, Bos indicus, and Bison bison.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) minimal-risk region. A region that:

(1) Maintains, and, in the case of regions where BSE was detected, had in place prior to the detection of BSE in an indigenous ruminant, risk mitigation measures adequate to prevent widespread exposure and/or establishment of the disease. Such measures include the following:

(i) Restrictions on the importation of animals sufficient to minimize the possibility of infected ruminants being imported into the region, and on the importation of animal products and animal feed containing ruminant protein sufficient to minimize the possibility of ruminants in the region being exposed to BSE;

(ii) Surveillance for BSE at levels that meet or exceed recommendations of the World Organization for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties) for surveillance for BSE; and

(iii) A ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban that is in place and is effectively enforced.

(2) In regions where BSE was detected, conducted an epidemiological investigation following detection of BSE sufficient to confirm the adequacy of measures to prevent the further introduction or spread of BSE, and continues to take such measures.

(3) In regions where BSE was detected, took additional risk mitigation measures, as necessary, following the BSE outbreak based on risk analysis of the outbreak, and continues to take such measures.

Cold spot. The area in a flexible plastic cooking tube or other type of container loaded with meat product, or the areas at various points along the belt in an oven chamber, slowest to reach the required temperature during the cooking process. The cold spot(s) for each container is experimentally determined before the cooking process begins, and once identified, remains constant.

Commercial birds. Birds that are imported for resale, breeding, public display, or any other purpose, except pet birds, zoological birds, research birds, or performing or theatrical birds.

Commercial poultry. Chickens, doves, ducks, geese, grouse, guinea fowl, partridges, pea fowl, pheasants, pigeons, quail, swans, and turkeys (including eggs for hatching) which are imported for resale, breeding, public display, or any other commercial purpose.

Contact. Known or potential commingling of products during processing or storage, or while being transported from any point to any other point. Contact includes the simultaneous processing in the same room, locker, or container, but not necessarily the same storage facility or conveyance, as long as adequate security measures are taken to prevent commingling, as determined by an authorized APHIS representative.

Container. For the purposes of § 94.1(c) and § 94.16(c), this term means a receptacle, sometimes refrigerated, which is designed to be filled with cargo, sealed, and then moved, without unsealing or unloading, aboard a variety of different transporting carriers.

Department. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA, Department).

Direct transloading. The transfer of cargo directly from one means of conveyance to another.

Exporting region. A region from which shipments are sent to the United States.

Farm equipment. Equipment used in the production of livestock or crops, including, but not limited to, mowers, harvesters, loaders, slaughter machinery, agricultural tractors, farm engines, farm trailers, farm carts, and farm wagons, but excluding automobiles and trucks.

Flock of origin. The flock in which the eggs were produced.

Food Safety and Inspection Service. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture.

FSIS inspector. An individual authorized by the Administrator, Food Safety and Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture, to perform the function involved.

Game birds. Migratory birds, including certain ducks, geese, pigeons, and doves (“migratory” refers to seasonal flight to and from the United States); free-flying quail, wild grouse, wild pheasants (as opposed to those that are commercial, domestic, or pen-raised).

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Highly pathogenic avian influenza is defined as follows:

(1) Any influenza virus that kills at least 75 percent of eight 4- to 6-week-old susceptible chickens within 10 days following intravenous inoculation with 0.2 mL of a 1:10 dilution of a bacteria-free, infectious allantoic fluid or inoculation of 10 susceptible 4- to 8-week-old chickens resulting in an intravenous pathogenicity index (IVPI) of greater than 1.2;

(2) Any H5 or H7 virus that does not meet the criteria in paragraph (1) of this definition, but has an amino acid sequence at the haemagglutinin cleavage site that is compatible with highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses; or

(3) Any influenza virus that is not an H5 or H7 subtype and that kills one to five out of eight inoculated chickens and grows in cell culture in the absence of trypsin within 10 days.

House. A structure, enclosed by walls and a roof, in which poultry are raised.

Immediate export. The period of time determined by APHIS, based on shipping routes and timetables, to be the shortest practicable interval of time between the arrival in the United States of an incoming carrier and the departure from the United States of an outgoing carrier, to transport a consignment of products.

Import (imported, importation) into the United States. To bring into the territorial limits of the United States.

Indicator piece. A cube or slice of meat to be used for the pink juice test, required to meet minimum size specifications.

Mechanically separated meat. A finely comminuted product resulting from the mechanical separation and removal of most of the bone from attached skeletal muscle of bovine carcasses that meets the FSIS specifications contained in 9 CFR 319.5.

Newcastle disease. Newcastle disease is an acute, rapidly spreading, and usually fatal viral infection of poultry caused by an avian paramyxovirus serotype 1 that meets one of the following criteria for virulence: The virus has an intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) in day-old chicks (Gallus gallus) of 0.7 or greater; or multiple basic amino acids have been demonstrated in the virus (either directly or by deduction) at the C-terminus of the F2 protein and phenylalanine at residue 117, which is the N-terminus of the F1 protein. The term “multiple basic amino acids” refers to at least three arginine or lysine residues between residues 113 and 116. In this definition, amino acid residues are numbered from the N-terminus of the amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the F0 gene; 113–116 corresponds to residues −4 to −1 from the cleavage site. Failure to demonstrate the characteristic pattern of amino acid residues as described above may require characterization of the isolated virus by an ICPI test. A failure to detect a cleavage site that is consistent with virulent strains does not confirm the absence of a virulent virus.

Operator. The operator responsible for the day-to-day operations of a facility.

Personal use. Only for personal consumption or display and not distributed further or sold.

Pink juice test. Determination of whether meat has been thoroughly cooked by observation of whether the flesh and juices have lost all red and pink color.

Port of arrival. Any place in the United States at which a product or article arrives, unless the product or article remains on the means of conveyance on which it arrived within the territorial limits of the United States.

Positive for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. A sheep or goat for which a diagnosis of a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy has been made.

Poultry. Chickens, turkeys, swans, partridges, guinea fowl, pea fowl; nonmigratory ducks, geese, pigeons, and doves; commercial, domestic, or pen-raised grouse, pheasants, and quail.

Processed animal protein. Meat meal, bone meal, meat-and-bone meal, blood meal, dried plasma and other blood products, hydrolyzed protein, hoof meal, horn meal, poultry meal, feather meal, fish meal, and any other similar products.

Premises of origin. The premises where the flock of origin is kept.

Region. Any defined geographic land area identifiable by geological, political, or surveyed boundaries. A region may consist of any of the following:

(1) A national entity (country);

(2) Part of a national entity (zone, county, department, municipality, parish, Province, State, etc.)

(3) Parts of several national entities combined into an area; or

(4) A group of national entities (countries) combined into a single area.

Region of origin. For meat and meat products, the region in which the animal from which the meat or meat products were derived was born, raised and slaughtered; and for eggs, the region in which the eggs were laid.

Restricted zone for classical swine fever. An area, delineated by the relevant competent veterinary authorities of the region in which the area is located, that surrounds and includes the location of an outbreak of classical swine fever in domestic swine or detection of the disease in wild boar, and from which the movement of domestic swine is prohibited.

Ruminants. All animals that chew the cud, such as cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, deer, antelopes, camels, llamas and giraffes.

Sentinel bird. A chicken that has been raised in an environment free of pathogens that cause communicable diseases of poultry and that has not been infected with, exposed to, or immunized with any strain of virus that causes Newcastle disease.

Specified risk materials (SRMs) from regions of controlled risk for BSE. Those bovine parts considered to be at particular risk of containing the BSE agent in infected animals, as listed in the FSIS regulations at 9 CFR 310.22(a).

Specified risk materials (SRMs) from regions of undetermined risk for BSE. Those bovine parts considered to be at particular risk of containing the BSE agent in infected animals, as listed in the FSIS regulations at 9 CFR 310.22(a), except that the following bovine parts from regions of undetermined risk for BSE are considered SRMs if they are derived from bovines over 12 months of age: Brain, skull, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, vertebral column (excluding the vertebrae of the tail, the transverse processes of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, and the wings of the sacrum), and the dorsal root ganglia.

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 territory or possession of the United States.

Suspect for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.

(1) A sheep or goat that has tested positive for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or for the proteinase resistant protein associated with a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, unless the animal is designated as positive for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy; or

(2) A sheep or goat that exhibits any of the following signs and that has been determined to be suspicious for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy by a veterinarian: Weight loss despite retention of appetite; behavior abnormalities; pruritus (itching); wool pulling; biting at legs or side; lip smacking; motor abnormalities such as incoordination, high stepping gait of forelimbs, bunny hop movement of rear legs, or swaying of back end; increased sensitivity to noise and sudden movement; tremor, “star gazing,” head pressing, recumbency, or other signs of neurological disease or chronic wasting.

Temperature indicator device (TID). A precalibrated temperature-measuring instrument containing a chemical compound activated at a specific temperature (the melting point of the chemical compound) identical to the processing temperature that must be reached by the meat being cooked. The Administrator will approve a TID for use after determining that the chemical compound in the device is activated at the specific temperature required.

Thoroughly cooked. Heated sufficiently to inactivate any pathogen that may be present, as indicated by the required TID or pink juice test.

United States. All of the States.

Veterinarian in Charge. The veterinary official of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture, who is assigned by the Administrator to supervise and perform the official animal health work of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in the State or area concerned.

Wild swine. Any swine which are allowed to roam outside an enclosure.

[52 FR 33801, Sept. 8, 1987]
Editorial Note:
For Federal Register citations affecting § 94.0, see the List of CFR Sections Affected, which appears in the Finding Aids section of the printed volume and at www.govinfo.gov.