[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 187 (Tuesday, September 28, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 59605-59606]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-24294]



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  Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 28, 2010 / 
Rules and Regulations  

[[Page 59605]]



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

9 CFR Part 161

[Docket No. APHIS-2006-0093]
RIN 0579-AC04


National Veterinary Accreditation Program; Currently Accredited 
Veterinarians Performing Accredited Duties and Electing to Participate

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Final rule; extension of period for election to participate.

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SUMMARY: We are announcing to the public that veterinarians who are 
currently accredited in the National Veterinary Accreditation Program 
(NVAP) may continue to perform accredited duties and to elect to 
continue to participate in the NVAP until further notice. The 
regulations indicate that currently accredited veterinarians must elect 
to continue their participation in the NVAP in order to maintain their 
accredited status, after which we will confirm their continued 
participation and notify them of their first renewal date. Various 
logistical obstacles have prevented us from processing in a timely 
manner the elections to participate that we have received. Allowing 
currently accredited veterinarians to continue to perform accredited 
duties and to elect to participate will ensure that we obtain an 
accurate and complete record of accredited veterinarian participation 
while continuing to allow veterinarians to provide accredited services 
to the public.

EFFECTIVE DATE: September 28, 2010.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Todd Behre, National Veterinary 
Accreditation Program, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 200, Riverdale, 
MD 20737; (301) 851-3401.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The regulations in 9 CFR chapter I, 
subchapter J (parts 160 through 162, referred to below as the 
regulations), govern the accreditation of veterinarians and the 
suspension and revocation of such accreditation. These regulations are 
the foundation for the National Veterinary Accreditation Program 
(NVAP). Accredited veterinarians are approved by the Administrator of 
the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department 
of Agriculture, to perform certain regulatory tasks to control and 
prevent the spread of animal diseases throughout the United States and 
internationally.
    On December 9, 2009 (74 FR 64998-65013, Docket No. APHIS-2006-
0093), we published a final rule in the Federal Register that amended 
the regulations to establish two accreditation categories in place of 
the former single category, to add requirements for supplemental 
training and renewal of accreditation, and to offer program 
certifications. The final rule was effective February 1, 2010, a date 
intended to give us time to prepare to implement the new regulations, 
which affect about 71,000 veterinarians who are currently accredited.
    Section 161.3 of the final rule contained the requirements for 
supplemental training and renewal of accreditation. Because accredited 
veterinarians have not previously been required to renew their 
accreditation or complete supplemental training, we established in 
paragraph (d) of Sec.  161.3 a process allowing currently accredited 
veterinarians to determine whether they wished to continue to 
participate in the NVAP.
    Paragraph (d) of Sec.  161.3 states that veterinarians who are 
accredited as of February 1, 2010, may continue to perform accredited 
duties between February 1, 2010, and the date of their first renewal. 
In accordance with paragraph (d), APHIS provided notice for 3 months to 
accredited veterinarians who were accredited as of February 1, 2010, to 
notify them that they must elect to participate in the NVAP as a 
Category I or Category II veterinarian. Paragraph (d) requires 
veterinarians to elect to continue to participate within 3 months of 
the end of the notification period, or their accredited status will 
expire.
    Paragraph (d) of Sec.  161.3 goes on to state that when APHIS 
receives notice from an accredited veterinarian that he or she elects 
to participate, APHIS will notify the accredited veterinarian of his or 
her date for first renewal. The accredited veterinarian must then 
complete all the training requirements for renewal, as described in 
Sec.  161.3, by his or her first renewal date. The notification of the 
first renewal date was thus intended to be the means by which APHIS 
notifies an accredited veterinarian that we have received notice that 
he or she has elected to participate and can thus continue performing 
accredited duties.
    To date, approximately 50,000 veterinarians have elected to 
continue to participate, and another 10,000 are expected to do so. 
Processing these elections to continue to participate involves many 
steps to verify, clarify, and proofread the information provided. At 
times, we have needed to contact State boards, area offices of the 
Veterinary Services program, and the accredited veterinarians 
themselves. As much as possible, we want to clear up any omissions or 
potential errors so that we have correct information for all accredited 
veterinarians in our database. Accredited veterinarians provide 
valuable regulatory services to their communities, allowing 
agricultural commerce to continue and ensuring that travelers can meet 
regulatory requirements for pets. It is important that those services 
continue to be provided.
    As a result, we have not yet been able to review all of the forms 
submitted by accredited veterinarians to elect to continue to 
participate, ensure that the forms accurately reflect the 
veterinarians' intent and situation, and provide notice to the 
veterinarians of their first renewal date. This process is expected to 
take several more months, during which we will continue to need 
veterinarians to perform accredited duties.
    In addition, we stated in the Background section of the final rule 
that we will notify veterinarians who routinely perform accredited 
veterinarian duties and have not yet elected to continue participating 
as accredited veterinarians, to ensure that such veterinarians do not 
inadvertently

[[Page 59606]]

let their accreditation lapse. We have discovered that we need 
additional time to reach out to such veterinarians to ensure that they 
are aware of the new requirements. We have also found that some 
veterinarians who received notification did not understand what the 
notification meant, and we plan to work to clarify the new requirements 
for currently accredited veterinarians in the coming months.
    Therefore, this document announces that currently accredited 
veterinarians may continue to perform accredited duties until further 
notice, even if they have not received a date for their first 
accreditation renewal from APHIS. We will also allow currently 
accredited veterinarians to continue to elect to participate in the 
NVAP.
    We currently expect to be able to process all the elections to 
participate we have received by March 2011. When we are closer to 
reaching this goal, we will publish another document in the Federal 
Register that will amend Sec.  161.3(d) to indicate the date by which 
veterinarians must elect to continue to participate in the NVAP.
    Done in Washington, DC, this 17\th\ day of September 2010.

Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-24294 Filed 9-27-10; 8:45 am]
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