APHIS is proposing this action at the request of the government of Brazil and after conducting a risk evaluation that indicates that Santa Catarina is free of these diseases. This proposed action would relieve certain restrictions on the importation into the United States of live swine, swine semen, pork meat, pork products, live ruminants, ruminant semen, ruminant meat and ruminant products from Santa Catarina while continuing to protect against the introduction of these diseases into the United States.

Rinderpest, FMD, SVD, ASF and CSF are contagious, viral animal diseases. With the exception of FMD, these diseases are not transmissible from animals to humans and do not affect human health. Transmission of FMD to humans is rare. APHIS has a strong system in place for detecting and responding to outbreaks of foreign animal diseases and places trade restrictions on affected regions to protect against the introduction of diseases of concern. All imported products must follow USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service regulations for food safety and labeling.

This action is published in the 16 April Federal Register.

Consideration will be given to comments received on or before 15 June. Comments may be submitted by either of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Please click here to submit or view comments and to view supporting and related materials available electronically.
• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Please send two copies of your comment to Docket No. APHIS-2009-0034, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. APHIS-2009-0034.

Further Reading

-

Find out more information on the diseases mentioned in this article by clicking here.