USDA Modifies Swine Import Requirements for European Union

May 23, 2006 — 

The USDA has posted a final rule amending the regulations governing the importation of animals and animal products into the U.S. from the original 15 European Union member states (EU-15) with regards to their Classical Swine Fever (CSF) status.

The new regulations recognize a region consisting of the 15 member states that comprised the EU as of April 30, 2004 as a single region of low risk for CSF. The rule applies a uniform set of importation requirements related to CSF to the EU-15 and prohibits for a specified period of time the importation of live swine and swine products from any area in the EU-15 that is identified by the veterinary authorities of the region as a restricted zone.

The USDA considered 3 risk analyses considering the fact that CSF continues to circulate in wild boar in several parts of the EU and determined that it was likely to continue to occur in domestic swine in the region as well. As a result of the analyses, the final rule requires that commodities from the region of the EU that was considered to be unaffected with CSF be segregated from those commodities from CSF-affected regions of the EU and other CSF-affected regions, and that measures be taken to ensure that donor boars providing semen for export to the U.S. are truly free of CSF.

In effect, the rule recognizes the EU-15 states as similar to the United States in so much as there is free movement of animals and commodities subject to restrictions put in place by the governing authority, in this case the European Commission. The USDA recognizes that the veterinary infrastructure active in the EU-15 states is adequate to detect, control and eradicate CSF in the case of an outbreak.

Source:
Federal Register, Vol. 71, No. 97