The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Feb. 20 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Feb. 11 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Feb. 10 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
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.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Feb. 4 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
A new test procedure at two plant inspection stations for imports of Pelargonium (commonly known as geranium) cuttings may cause delays for importers of the plant. Beginning Feb. 18, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin evaluating the use of molecular diagnostics at the plant inspection stations in Linden, N.J. and Atlanta. The Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risk and Yield (CANARY) diagnostic system will allow the agency to rapidly detect low levels of pathogens, said the agency. The new system will be used to test Pelargonium spp. cuttings that do not arrive from APHIS-approved facilities for Ralstonia solanacearum, it said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is expanding its procedures for risk-based sampling of import shipments of plants for planting to four additional ports. The agency said on Feb. 3 that it will use risk-based sampling at the plant inspection stations in Beltsville, Md.; Orlando, Fla.; Nogales, Ariz.; and San Diego, Calif. APHIS said it will “continue implementation” of risk-based sampling “on February 17, 2014.”
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced a series of public meetings to gather input on the state of its quarantine system for live animal imports. APHIS said the meetings will provide a forum to discuss “implementing possible alternatives to existing APHIS requirements and oversight for live animal quarantines.” APHIS currently directly runs three quarantine centers for imported live animals, and also allows use of private quarantine facilities under certain requirements. Each meeting will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The public meetings will be held in the following locations:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Jan. 31 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a list of ongoing international sanitary and phytosanitary standard-setting activities of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), and the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO). Comments on the standards being considered may be submitted at any time, said APHIS.