APHIS and CFIA Release Joint Response to Comments on Draft Framework for Foreign Animal Disease Zoning Arrangement

June 29, 2016 — 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are making available a joint response to stakeholder comments received during an external consultation process to gather feedback on a draft framework for implementing and maintaining a foreign animal disease (FAD) zoning arrangement. [Source: USDA APHIS, June 23, 2016]

APHIS and CFIA conducted the external consultation process over the spring and summer of 2014. The two agencies collectively received 29 unique comments on the draft framework and the joint response document organizes the comments into 7 categories, including international acceptance, emerging diseases, traceability, political pressures, communications and stakeholder engagement, vaccination zones and other topics. Each category also includes a joint response from APHIS and CFIA.

TheFramework for Implementing and Maintaining the Arrangement between CFIA and USDA for the Recognition of Foreign Animal Disease Control and Eradication Zones provides an operational plan for the United States and Canada to recognize each other’s decisions to control a highly contagious FAD outbreak through zoning. The framework also establishes a structure for maintaining the zoning arrangement over time and strategies for engaging stakeholders in actions taken under the arrangement, including planning and preparedness.

The two agencies developed the zoning arrangement and framework under the auspices of the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC), which was established in 2011 to promote regulatory cooperation and facilitate trade for the benefit industry and consumers.