APHIS Amends Select Agent and Toxin Regulations; Affects PPQ and VS Lists

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service amended the Select Agent and Toxin Regulations, pursuant to its third biennial review of the list, in a final rule set for publication in the Federal Register on Oct. 5. The final rule amends both the Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) list and the Veterinary Services (VS) lists of select agents and toxins. APHIS reorganized the list based on the relative potential of each agent or toxin to be misused to adversely affect human, plant, or animal health, and also made changes such as the addition of definitions and clarification of language concerning security, training , biosafety, biocontainment, and incident response.