[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 226 (Monday, November 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65869-65871]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-29231]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

[Docket No. 98-090-6]
RIN 0579-AB03


Classical Swine Fever; Availability of Risk Analysis Related to 
the Importation of Swine and Swine Products From France and Spain

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

[[Page 65870]]


ACTION: Notice of availability and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that a risk analysis has been 
prepared by the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) relative 
to the risk of introducing classical swine fever virus in swine and 
swine products imported from France and Spain. This risk analysis is a 
supplement to a risk analysis prepared by APHIS titled ``Risk Analysis 
for Importation of Classical Swine Fever Virus in Swine and Swine 
Products from the European Union--December 2000.'' The supplemental 
risk analysis also identifies the administrative units in France and 
Spain that we would consider the smallest administrative units that 
could be considered ``regions'' in each of those countries. We are 
making this supplemental risk analysis available to the public for 
review and comment.

DATES: We will consider all comments we receive on or before January 
23, 2004.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by postal mail/commercial delivery 
or by e-mail. If you use postal mail/commercial delivery, please send 
four copies of your comment (an original and three copies) to: Docket 
No. 98-090-6, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 
3C71, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state 
that your comment refers to Docket No. 98-090-6. If you use e-mail, 
address your comment to [email protected]. Your comment must 
be contained in the body of your message; do not send attached files. 
Please include your name and address in your message and ``Docket No. 
98-090-6'' on the subject line.
    You may read the supplemental risk analysis and any comments that 
we receive on that document in our reading room. The reading room is 
located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure 
someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming.
    You may request a copy of the supplemental risk analysis by calling 
or writing to the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. 
The supplemental risk analysis is also available on the Internet. 
Instructions for accessing the supplemental risk analysis on the 
Internet are provided below under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
    APHIS documents published in the Federal Register, and related 
information, including the names of organizations and individuals who 
have commented on APHIS dockets, are available on the Internet at 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Chip Wells, Senior Staff Officer, 
Regionalization Evaluation Services Staff, National Center for Import 
and Export, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 38, Riverdale, MD 20737-
1231; (301) 734-4356.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture (the Department) regulates the importation of 
animals and animal products to guard against the introduction of animal 
diseases into this country. The regulations pertaining to the 
importation of animals and animal products are set forth in the Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR), title 9, chapter I, subchapter D (9 CFR 
parts 91 through 99).
    On June 25, 1999, we published in the Federal Register (64 FR 
34155-34168, Docket No. 98-090-1) a proposal to, among other things, 
amend the regulations regarding the importation of swine and swine 
products from a region in the European Union (EU) consisting of 
Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, 
Portugal, Spain, and parts of Germany and Italy.
    Before developing our proposed rule, we prepared a risk analysis to 
estimate the likelihood of introducing classical swine fever (CSF, 
which we referred to in the proposed rule as hog cholera) from the 
region, and to determine what, if any, mitigation measures we 
considered necessary. We assessed the likelihood of introducing CSF 
through the importation of live breeding swine, swine semen, and pork 
and pork products. We made the risk analysis available to the public 
during the comment period for the proposed rule.
    We solicited comments concerning our proposed rule for 60 days 
ending August 24, 1999. One of the comments we received expressed 
concerns with several aspects of our risk analysis. Based on that 
comment, and as recommended by the Department's Office of Risk 
Assessment and Cost Benefit Analysis, we revised our risk analysis and 
included a supplement that presented in more detail specific 
information about CSF outbreaks in the EU. The revised risk analysis is 
titled ``Risk Analysis for Importation of Classical Swine Fever Virus 
in Swine and Swine Products from the European Union--December 2000.''
    On April 7, 2003, we published in the Federal Register (68 FR 
16922-16940, Docket No. 98-090-5) a final rule amending the regulations 
to recognize a region in the EU consisting of Austria, Belgium, Greece, 
the Netherlands, Portugal, and parts of Germany and Italy as free of 
CSF. In that final rule, APHIS did not recognize France or Spain as 
free of CSF because CSF outbreaks had occurred in each of those 
countries after the publication of our June 1999 proposed rule.
    In our April 2003 final rule, we continued to consider all of 
France and Spain affected with CSF, even though outbreaks had occurred 
only in limited areas of those countries, because we had not yet 
defined the administrative units in those countries we would use to 
consider less than the entire country affected with CSF. Since the 
outbreaks, each of the affected countries took action to eradicate CSF. 
The last affected herds were depopulated in Spain on April 30, 2002, 
and in France on April 29, 2002.
    Following the elimination of CSF in domestic swine in France and 
Spain, we prepared a supplemental risk analysis to examine the risk of 
introducing CSF from the importation of swine and swine products from 
those countries. For the supplemental risk analysis, we used the 
applicable information from the risk analyses we conducted for the June 
1999 proposed rule and the April 2003 final rule, as well as 
information made available following the outbreak and elimination of 
CSF in those countries.
    We are giving notice that the supplemental risk analysis is 
available for public review and are requesting comments on the 
supplemental risk analysis for 60 days. The supplemental risk analysis 
addresses the current CSF situation in France and Spain and identifies 
the administrative units we would use to regionalize France and Spain 
in the event of future disease outbreaks in those counties. The 
supplemental risk analysis and any comments received will be the basis 
for determining whether to publish a final rule to: (1) Include France 
and Spain as part of the EU region recognized in our April 2003 final 
rule as one in which CSF is not known to exist, and from which breeding 
swine, swine semen, and pork and pork products may be imported into the 
United States under certain conditions in the absence of restrictions 
associated with other

[[Page 65871]]

foreign animal diseases of swine; and (2) identify the smallest 
administrative units in France and Spain we will use to regionalize 
those countries in the event of a disease outbreak. We will address any 
comments we receive on the supplemental risk analysis in a future 
document in the Federal Register.

Accessing the Supplemental Risk Analysis on the Internet

    The supplemental risk analysis is available on the Internet at 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ncie/reg-request.html. At the bottom of 
that Web site page, click on ``Information previously submitted by 
Regions requesting export approval and their supporting 
documentation.'' At the next screen, click on the triangle beside 
``European Union/ Not Specified/Classical Swine Fever,'' then click on 
the triangle beside ``Response by APHIS,'' which will reveal a link for 
``APHIS Supplemental Risk Analysis for Importation of the Classical 
Swine Fever Virus in Swine and Swine Products from France and Spain.'' 
Following that link will allow you to view the supplemental risk 
analysis.

    Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 1622, 7701-7772, and 8301-8317; 21 
U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 42 U.S.C. 4331 and 4332; 7 CFR 
2.22, 2.80, and 371.4.

    Done in Washington, DC, this 18th day of November, 2003.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 03-29231 Filed 11-21-03; 8:45 am]
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