Court Prevents APHIS from Implementing its Final Rule on BSE Minimal Risk Regions, Etc
According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) press release and USDA sources, on March 2, 2005, the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana issued a temporary injunction preventing APHIS from implementing its final rule on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) minimal risk regions, which had been scheduled to take effect on March 7, 2005.
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Injunction Affects Canada's Exports to U.S.
In January 2005, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a final rule to (1) establish a category of regions that present a minimal risk of introducing BSE into the U.S. via live ruminants and ruminant products and byproducts, and (2) add Canada to this minimal risk category.
APHIS' final rule also establishes conditions for the importation of certain live ruminants and ruminant products and byproducts from such minimal risk regions.
(APHIS has previously stated that ruminants are animals that have multiple stomachs, such as cattle, sheep, goats, bison, deer, elk, caribou, moose, camels, etc.)
Trial to be Scheduled on Final Rule
According to USDA and R-CALF USA (the U.S. cattle producers' organization that requested this temporary injunction), R-CALF USA's lawsuit, which is seeking to overturn this APHIS final rule, will go to trial, and the temporary injunction will be in place while the judge considers the litigation.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 01/05/05 and 01/06/05 news, 05010535 and 05010620, for BP summaries of APHIS' final rule, including a list of products from Canada that are allowed entry under the final rule. See ITT's Online Archives or 02/11/05 news, 05021107, for BP summary of USDA's decision to delay the effective date of a provision in the final rule regarding imports of beef from animals 30 months or older from Canada.)
USDA Statement (Release No. 0072.05, dated 03/02/05) available at http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2005/03/0072.xml
R-CALF News Release (dated 03/02/05) available at http://www.r-calfusa.com/Alerts/alerts.htm