APHIS Corrects EU Poultry Import Regs to Allow Third-Region Birds

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is amending its regulations on poultry imports from the European Union to correct several mistakes it made in an earlier final rule. APHIS had in April 2013 issued regulations that set requirements for poultry imports from a new EU Poultry Trade Region (see 13032824), but the way the agency wrote the regulations inadvertently prohibited EU exports of poultry that originated outside the region and created untypical requirements for imports of cooked poultry, it said. In a new final rule, APHIS is making “technical corrections” to allow for imports of poultry from the EU that originate in a third region, as long as that third region is free from Newcastle disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza. The final rule also aligns requirements for cooked poultry imports from the EU with cooked poultry import requirements in other regions.