Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 163 / Tuesday, August 23, 2011 / Rules and Regulations 52547 

mealybug, melon thrips, bacterial wilt, 

the rust fungus Puccinia pampeana, 

Andean potato mottle virus, and tomato 

severe leaf curl virus. If any of pests 

listed in the workplan, or other 

quarantine pests, are found to be 

generally infesting the greenhouse, 

export from that production site will be 

halted until the exporting country’s 

NPPO determines that the pest risk has 

been mitigated. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(3) * * * 

(v) The greenhouse must be inspected 

prior to harvest for those pests listed in 

the bilateral workplan provided to 

APHIS by the NPPO of the exporting 

country, including any of the following 

pests: The weevil Faustinus 

ovatipennis, pea leafminer, tomato fruit 

borer, lantana mealybug, passionvine 

mealybug, melon thrips bacterial wilt, 

the rust fungus Puccinia pampeana, 

Andean potato mottle virus, and tomato 

severe leaf curl virus. If any of the pests 

listed in the workplan, or other 

quarantine pests, are found to be 

generally infesting the greenhouse, 

export from that production site will be 

halted until the exporting country’s 

NPPO determines that the pest risk has 

been mitigated. 

* * * * * 

Done in Washington, DC, this 17th day of 

August 2011. 

Gregory L. Parham, 

Administrator, Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2011–21522 Filed 8–22–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

9 CFR Part 93 

[Docket No. APHIS–2008–0112] 

RIN 0579–AD31 

Importation of Horses From 

Contagious Equine Metritis-Affected 

Countries 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Interim rule; delay of 

enforcement and reopening of comment 

period. 

SUMMARY: We are reopening the 

comment period for an interim rule that 

amended the regulations regarding the 

testing requirements for importation of 

horses from countries affected with 

contagious equine metritis. We are also 

delaying the enforcement of all 

provisions of the interim rule until a 

final rule is published and effective. 

This action will allow interested 

persons additional time to comment on 

the interim rule and provide the Animal 

and Plant Health Inspection Service 

with time to make adjustments to the 

interim rule that may be necessary in 

order to successfully implement it. 

DATES: Enforcement of the interim rule 

amending 9 CFR part 93, published at 

76 FR 16683–16686 on March 25, 2011, 

and delayed until July 25, 2011, in a 

document published at 76 FR 31220– 

31221 on May 31, 2011, is delayed until 

further notice. We will consider all 

comments that we receive on or before 

September 7, 2011. APHIS will publish 

a document in the Federal Register 

announcing any future action. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by either of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2008-0112- 

0020. 

• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: 

Send your comment to Docket No. 

APHIS–2008–0112, Regulatory Analysis 

and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 

3A–03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1238. 

Supporting documents and any 

comments we receive on this docket 

may be viewed at http:// 

www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2008-0112 or 

in our reading room, which 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. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. 

Ellen Buck, Senior Staff Veterinarian, 

Equine Imports, National Center for 

Import and Export, VS, APHIS, 4700 

River Road Unit 39, Riverdale, MD 

20737–1231; (301) 734–8364. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The regulations in 9 CFR part 93 

(referred to below as the regulations) 

prohibit or restrict the importation of 

certain animals into the United States to 

prevent the introduction of 

communicable diseases of livestock and 

poultry. ‘‘Subpart C—Horses,’’ §§ 93.300 

through 93.326, pertains to the 

importation of horses into the United 

States. Sections 93.301 and 93.304 of 

the regulations contain specific 

provisions for the importation of horses 

from regions affected with contagious 

equine metritis (CEM), which is a highly 

contagious venereal disease of horses 

and other equines caused by an 

infection with the bacterium Taylorella 

equigenitalis. 

On March 25, 2011, we published an 

interim rule in the Federal Register (76 

FR 16683–16686, Docket No. APHIS– 

2008–0112) to amend the regulations 

regarding the importation of horses from 

countries affected with CEM by 

incorporating an additional certification 

requirement for imported horses 731 

days of age or less and adding new 

testing protocols for test mares and 

imported stallions and mares more than 

731 days of age. The provisions of the 

interim rule became effective upon 

publication. 

On May 31, 2011, we published a 

document in the Federal Register (76 

FR 31220–31221, Docket No. APHIS– 

2008–0112) to delay the enforcement of 

the interim rule until July 25, 2011. This 

action was taken after a request was 

made by affected entities to allow them 

additional time to adjust their operation 

procedures. 

Delay of Enforcement 

Based on comments received 

following the March 2011 interim rule, 

we are considering two changes to the 

interim rule. The interim rule required 

that three sets of cultures from imported 

stallions be collected for the detection of 

the CEM organism, with negative results 

obtained from at least two sets prior to 

test breeding. However, based on the 

comments received, we are considering 

amending the requirement so that only 

one set of cultures would be collected 

from an imported stallion with negative 

results prior to test breeding. The 

purpose of culturing a stallion prior to 

test breeding is to reduce the risk of 

infecting a test mare. Therefore, test 

breeding should not take place until 

negative culture results have been 

reported. Under the regulations, a 

stallion may be released from CEM 

quarantine only if all cultures and tests 

of specimens from the mares used for 

test breeding are negative for CEM and 

all cultures performed on specimens 

taken from the stallion are negative for 

CEM. 

The interim rule also required that 

three sets of cultures be collected from 

imported mares and test mares with an 

additional culture sample taken from 

either the distal cervix or the 

endometrium. Based on the comments 

received, we are considering replacing 

that requirement with a provision that 

would require a culture to be collected 

from the distal cervix or the 


rmajette on DSK89S0YB1PROD with RULES
52548 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 163 / Tuesday, August 23, 2011 / Rules and Regulations 

endometrium on the third set of cultures 

only. 

We are reopening the comment period 

for 15 days to allow additional public 

comment on the March 2011 interim 

rule, and we particularly welcome 

comments on the modifications we are 

considering to those requirements 

described above. 

Based on our review of the comments 

received to date, we consider it 

advisable to delay the enforcement of 

the interim rule until further notice. 

This additional time will allow APHIS 

to consider all comments and make 

adjustments to the interim rule that may 

be necessary in order to successfully 

implement it. 

Accordingly, enforcement of the 

interim rule amending 9 CFR part 93, 

published at 76 FR 16683–16686 on 

March 25, 2011, and delayed until July 

25, 2011, in a document published at 76 

FR 31220–31221 on May 31, 2011, is 

delayed until further notice. 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1622 and 8301–8317; 

21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 

CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.4. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 17th day of 

August 2011. 

Gregory L. Parham, 

Administrator, Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2011–21524 Filed 8–22–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

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; technical amendment 

and announcement of end of period for 

election to participate. 

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 may elect to 

continue to participate in the NVAP 

until October 1, 2011. 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. A previous document 

announced 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. That 

document stated that we would specify 

a date by which veterinarians would 

have to elect to participate in a 

subsequent document. 

DATES: Effective Date: August 23, 2011. 

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 § 161.3 a 

process allowing currently accredited 

veterinarians to determine whether they 

wished to continue to participate in the 

NVAP. 

Paragraph (d) of § 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 § 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 § 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. 

In a notice published in the Federal 

Register and effective on September 28, 

2010 (75 FR 59605–59606, Docket No. 

APHIS–2006–0093), we announced 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 

stated that we would also allow 

currently accredited veterinarians to 

continue to elect to participate in the 

NVAP. We took this action because 

logistical difficulties had prevented us 

from processing the elections to 

participate of all the currently 

accredited veterinarians (over 50,000) 

who elected to participate. We stated 

that, when we are closer to reaching the 

goal of processing those elections, we 

would publish another document in the 

Federal Register that would amend 

§ 161.3(d) to indicate the date by which 

veterinarians must elect to continue to 

participate in the NVAP. 

We have determined that setting a 

deadline of October 1, 2011, will allow 

adequate time for currently accredited 

veterinarians to elect to continue 

participating, if they wish to do so, and 

for us to process the elections to 

participate that we have received to this 

point and any further elections to 

participate that may be submitted by 

that date. Accordingly, this document 

amends § 161.3(d) to indicate that 

currently accredited veterinarians must 

elect to participate by October 1, 2011. 

A Web seminar on the revisions to the 

NVAP and how to elect to participate is 


rmajette on DSK89S0YB1PROD with RULES