Animals and animal products

Proposed Rule: Evaluation and Recognition of the Animal Health Status of Compartments [Docket No. APHIS-2017-0105]

APHIS is proposing to establish standards to allow it to recognize compartments for animal disease status, consistent with World Organization for Animal Health international standards. Under this proposed rule, when a foreign government submits a request for recognition of a compartment, APHIS would conduct a disease risk assessment based on a list of eight factors that closely parallel those we use when conducting regionalization evaluations, and would provide for public notice of and comment on the risk assessment. APHIS would also add provisions for imposing import restrictions and/or prohibitions when a compartment it has recognized as disease-free experiences an outbreak and for lifting those sanctions once the outbreak has been controlled. These proposed standards would provide a tool that may be used to preserve international trade when regionalization is not feasible. (Federal Register Vol. 84, No. 64, Wednesday, 3 April 2019, pages 12955-12959)