An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer

CENTER FOR VETERINARY BIOLOGICS NOTICE 20-02

TO: Biologics Licensees, Permittees, and Applicants

Directors, Center for Veterinary Biologics

Veterinary Services Leadership Team

FROM: Byron Rippke

Director

SUBJECT: NCAH Portal Functionality: Electronic Labeling Submission Revision 

I. PURPOSE

The purpose of this Notice is to inform licensees, permittees, and applicants that the 

Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB) is revising and adding a new type of 

document for the label mounting sheet for label submission in the NCAH Portal 

under APHIS Form 2049. Licensees, permittees, or applicants must be NCAH Portal 

enabled to submit an electronic label. 

II. BACKGROUND

The NCAH Portal is external-facing and enables web-based electronic submissions 

and responses between biologics licensees, permittees, applicants, and the CVB.

Submission of electronic labels via the NCAH Portal has been available since 2016 

using only a Microsoft Word template for the label mounting sheet. This revision 

updates the Word version of the label mounting sheet for submission through the 

NCAH Portal and provides an additional label mounting sheet in Adobe PDF form.

III. ACTION 

A. NCAH Portal-Specific Format and Submission Process Required

The procedure for submitting and reviewing electronic labels is substantially 

different from the traditional paper process. It leverages efficiencies of electronic 

document comparison and document navigation. Therefore, it is essential to 

submit labels in the proper electronic format. 

Before submitting an electronic label, read the following instructions:

• Revised User Guide 11—Submitting Labels to CVB-Policy, Evaluation 

and Licensing

• Revised User Guide 13—Using the CVB Template for a Label Mounting 

Sheet

• The WORD template Label Mounting Sheet under User Guide A has been 

revised.

• A PDF template Label Mounting Sheet is now available under User 

Guide C.

Animal and Plant

Health Inspection

Service

Veterinary Services

Center for Veterinary 

Biologics

1920 Dayton Avenue

PO Box 844

Ames, IA 50010

(515) 337-6100
CENTER FOR VETERINARY BIOLOGICS NOTICE 20-02

Page 2

 An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer

The procedure includes:

• Document preparation of each label on a CVB-approved electronic 

template Label Mounting Sheet.

• Submission of additional documents to support labeling, such as 

correspondence or translations, as Incoming-Other.

Direct any additional questions to CVB.PIMS@usda.gov. 

B. Staged Submissions

Please submit no more than five electronic labels in one submission.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION/ APPLICABILITY

Detailed procedural instructions, and NCAH Portal user guides, will be available April 1, 

2020, on the NCAH Portal Guidance page of the APHIS CVB website. Users are 

expected to read and understand User Guides 11 and 13 prior to submitting electronic 

labels. 

The CVB will continue to process paper labels for those products that do not yet have an 

electronic approved label on file with the CVB, but once converted to electronic format, 

only electronic revisions will be accepted.

Electronic submission via the NCAH Portal is strongly encouraged.