Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 113 / Tuesday, June 12, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 34783 

PART 319—FOREIGN QUARANTINE 

NOTICES 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 319 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701–7772, and 

7781–7786; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 7 CFR 

2.22, 2.80, and 371.3. 

■ 2. Section 319.56–28 is amended as 

follows: 

■ a. By adding a new paragraph (h) to 

read as set forth below. 

■ b. By revising the Office of 

Management and Budget citation at the 

end of the section to read as set forth 

below. 

§ 319.56–28 Tomatoes from certain 

countries. 

* * * * * 

(h) Tomatoes (fruit) (Solanum 

lycopersicum) from member States of 

the Economic Community of West 

African States. Fresh tomatoes may be 

imported into the continental United 

States from member States of the 

Economic Community of West African 

States (ECOWAS) only in accordance 

with this section and other applicable 

provisions of this subpart. The 

ECOWAS consists of Benin, Burkina 

Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, 

Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, 

Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, 

Sierra Leone, and Togo Republic. These 

conditions are designed to prevent the 

introduction of the following quarantine 

pests: Bactrocera cucurbitae, B. 

invadens, Ceratitis capitata, C. rosa, 

Chrysodeixis chalcites, Helicoverpa 

armigera, H. assulta, Leucinodes 

orbonalis, Maconellicoccus hirsutus, 

and Nipaecoccus viridis. 

(1) Production site requirements. (i) 

Production sites in which the tomatoes 

are produced must be registered with 

the national plant protection 

organization (NPPO) of the exporting 

country. Initial approval of production 

sites must be completed jointly by the 

NPPO of the exporting country and 

APHIS. 

(ii) The NPPO of the exporting 

country must visit and inspect the 

production sites monthly, beginning 2 

months before the harvest and 

continuing through the end of the 

shipping season. APHIS may monitor 

the production sites if necessary. 

(iii) Production sites must be pestexclusionary structures (PES). The PES 

must have self-closing double doors. All 

openings, including vents, to the 

outside of the PES must be covered by 

screening with mesh openings of not 

more than 1.6 mm. 

(iv) No shade trees may be grown 

within 10 meters of the entry door of the 

PES, and no other fruit fly host plants 

may be grown within 50 meters of the 

entry door of the PES. 

(2) Mitigation measures for fruit flies. 

(i) Beginning 2 months prior to the start 

of the shipping season and continuing 

through the end of the harvest, the 

NPPO of the exporting country must set 

and maintain fruit fly traps with an 

APHIS-approved protein bait inside 

each PES at a rate of eight traps per 

hectare, with a minimum of four traps 

in each PES, and check the traps every 

7 days. The NPPO of the exporting 

country must maintain records of trap 

placement, trap maintenance, and 

captures of any fruit flies of concern. 

The NPPO must maintain trapping 

records for 1 year, and make the records 

available to APHIS upon request. 

(ii) Capture of a single fruit fly of 

concern inside a PES will immediately 

result in cancellation of exports to the 

United States from that PES. The 

detection of a fruit fly of concern in a 

consignment at the port of entry that is 

traced back to a PES will also result in 

immediate cancellation of exports to the 

United States from that PES. In both 

cases, exports from the PES in question 

may not resume until APHIS and the 

NPPO of the exporting country have 

mutually determined that the risk has 

been properly mitigated. 

(3) Harvesting requirements. The stem 

and calyx must be removed from the 

tomato. 

(4) Packinghouse requirements. (i) 

While in use for exporting tomatoes to 

the United States, the packinghouses 

may only accept fruit from registered 

production sites. 

(ii) No shade trees may be grown 

within 10 meters of the entry door of the 

packinghouses, and no other fruit fly 

host plants may be grown within 50 

meters of the entry door of the 

packinghouses. 

(5) Post-harvest procedures. (i) The 

tomatoes must be safeguarded by an 

insect-proof mesh screen or plastic 

tarpaulin while in transit to the 

packinghouse and while awaiting 

packing. 

(ii) Tomatoes must be packed within 

24 hours of harvest in insect-proof 

cartons or containers, or covered with 

insect-proof mesh or a plastic tarpaulin 

for transport to the United States. These 

safeguards must remain intact until 

arrival in the United States or the 

consignment will be denied entry into 

the United States. 

(iii) If transported by sea, the 

containers in which the tomatoes are 

packed must be kept closed if stored 

within 20 meters of a fruit fly host prior 

to being loaded on the vessel. 

(6) Commercial consignments. The 

tomatoes may be imported in 

commercial consignments only. 

(7) Phytosanitary certificate. Each 

consignment of tomatoes must be 

accompanied by a phytosanitary 

certificate issued by the NPPO of the 

exporting country, providing an 

additional declaration ‘‘These tomatoes 

were grown in registered production 

sites in [name of country] and the 

consignment has been inspected and 

found free of quarantine pests.’’ 

(Approved by the Office of Management and 

Budget under control numbers 0579–0049, 

0579–0131, 0579–0316, 0579–0286, 0579– 

0345, and 0579–0381.) 

Done in Washington, DC, this 6th day of 

June 2012. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2012–14294 Filed 6–11–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

9 CFR Parts 93, 94, and 95 

[Docket No. APHIS–2006–0074] 

RIN 0579–AC36 

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Interim rule; reopening of 

comment period. 

SUMMARY: We are reopening the 

comment period for our interim rule 

that amended the regulations 

concerning the importation of animals 

and animal products to prohibit or 

restrict the importation of bird and 

poultry products from regions where 

any subtype of highly pathogenic avian 

influenza (HPAI) is considered to exist. 

The interim rule also imposed 

restrictions concerning importation of 

live poultry and birds that have been 

vaccinated for certain types of HPAI, or 

that have been moved through regions 

where any subtype of HPAI is 

considered to exist. This action will give 

the public an additional opportunity to 

comment on the interim rule and on a 

change to its provisions that we are 

considering. 

DATES: We will consider all comments 

that we receive on or before July 12, 

2012. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by either of the following methods: 


wreier-aviles on DSK5TPTVN1PROD with RULES
34784 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 113 / Tuesday, June 12, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 

1To view the interim rule and the comments we 

received, go to http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2006-0074. 

2Studies we reviewed included Infectious and 

Lethal Doses of H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian 

Influenza Virus for House Sparrows (Passer 

Domesticus) and Rock Pigeons (Columbia Livia) 

J VET Diagn Invest July 2009 21: 437–445; and 

Pathogenesis and pathobiology of avian influenza 

virus infection in birds, M.J. Pantin-Jackwood and 

D.E. Swayne, Southeast Poultry Research 

Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, 

Athens, GA 30605. 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2006-0074. 

• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: 

Send your comment to Docket No. 

APHIS–2006–0074, 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-2006-0074 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) 799–7039 

before coming. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Javier Vargas, Case Manager, National 

Center for Import and Export, Animal 

Health Policy and Programs, VS, APHIS, 

4700 River Road, Unit 38, Riverdale, 

MD 20737; (301) 851–3300. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service (APHIS) regulations 

in Title 9 of the Code of Federal 

Regulations (CFR), parts 93, 94, and 95 

(referred to below as the regulations), 

govern the importation into the United 

States of specified animals and animal 

products and byproducts to prevent the 

introduction of various animal diseases, 

including Newcastle disease and highly 

pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). 

On January 24, 2011, we published in 

the Federal Register (76 FR 4046–4056, 

Docket No. APHIS–2006–0074) an 

interim rule 1 that amended the 

regulations governing the importation 

into the United States of live birds, 

poultry, eggs for hatching, and bird and 

poultry products and by-products. The 

interim rule was effective upon 

publication. 

Comments on the interim rule were 

required to be received on or before 

March 25, 2011. In a document 

published in the Federal Register on 

May 3, 2011 (76 FR 24793, Docket No. 

APHIS–2006–0074), we reopened the 

comment period for an additional 15 

days until May 18, 2011, to allow 

interested persons additional time to 

prepare and submit comments. We 

received 16 comments by that date. 

We are once again reopening the 

comment period for the interim rule and 

are soliciting public comment on a 

change we are considering to the 

provisions of the January 2011 interim 

rule. 

Specifically, the interim rule 

amended §§ 93.101(b) and 93.205(a) to 

prohibit the importation into the United 

States of live birds or poultry that have 

been moved through a region identified 

in accordance with § 94.6(a) as a region 

where any form of HPAI exists. We took 

this action to minimize the risk of 

introducing HPAI into the United States 

through the importation of infected 

avians. However, several peer-reviewed 

scientific studies 2 have come to our 

attention since the publication of the 

interim rule establishing that pigeons 

(and other Columbiform species such as 

doves) have a very low risk of being 

infected by HPAI viruses and would 

therefore contribute little to the risk of 

transmission and spread of such viruses. 

Thus, it appears that it may not be 

necessary to prohibit the importation of 

Columbiform avians from HPAI regions 

provided that all other requirements in 

the regulations pertaining to pigeons, 

doves, and other poultry are followed. 

Under § 93.209 of the current 

regulations, poultry, including 

Columbiform avians, offered for 

importation from any region of the 

world except Canada are required to be 

quarantined in an approved facility for 

at least 30 days after importation into 

the United States to determine, through 

inspections and testing, their freedom 

from communicable diseases of poultry 

and from exposure to such diseases. We 

further require in § 93.205(a) 

certification that live poultry, including 

Columbiform avians (except those from 

Canada), were inspected on the 

premises of origin immediately before 

the date of movement from such region 

and that they were then found to be free 

of evidence of communicable diseases 

of poultry. We also require that, as far 

as it has been possible to determine, 

during the 90 days prior to movement 

the poultry were not exposed to 

communicable diseases of poultry and 

the premises were not in any area under 

quarantine. Columbiform avians and 

other poultry must also not have been 

vaccinated with a vaccine for the H5 or 

H7 subtype of avian influenza. 

Section 93.205(a) also requires that 

live poultry are also required to have 

been kept in the region from which they 

are offered for importation since they 

were hatched, or for at least 90 days 

immediately preceding the date of 

movement, that the poultry have not 

been moved through a region identified 

in accordance with § 94.6(a) of this 

subchapter as a region where any form 

of HPAI exists, and that, as far as it has 

been possible to determine, no case of 

HPAI or exotic Newcastle disease (END) 

occurred on the premises where such 

poultry were kept, or on adjoining 

premises, during that 90-day period. 

Based on our review of the studies 

referred to above and the mitigations 

already in the regulations, we have 

determined that the importation of 

Columbiform avians from regions 

considered to have HPAI poses a 

minimal risk to the United States. 

Therefore, we are considering adding to 

the final rule following this interim rule 

a provision to amend § 93.205(a) of the 

regulations to allow the importation of 

Columbiform avians that have 

originated in or transited regions 

considered to have HPAI subject to the 

regulations. Columbiform avians and 

other poultry from regions considered to 

have END would remain prohibited 

from importation to the United States. 

We are therefore reopening the 

comment period on Docket No. APHIS– 

2006–0074 for an additional 30 days. 

This action will allow interested 

persons additional time to prepare and 

submit comments on the interim rule 

and on the change we are considering 

with respect to Columbiform avians. 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 1622, 7701–7772, 

7781–7786, 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 6th day of 

June 2012. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2012–14297 Filed 6–11–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

14 CFR Part 121 

[Docket No. FAA–2012–0486; Amdt. No. 

121–359] 

Removal of Six Month Line Check 

Requirement for Pilots Over Age 60; 

Technical Amendment 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration, DOT. 


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