Aquatic Animal Health Plan
Comments on a national plan to manage aquatic animal pathogens are due Oct. 20.
Federal officials are now seeking comments on a National Aquatic Animal Health Plan designed to provide a framework for developing programs to handle diseases that affect the health of aquatic animals.
The NAAHP, cited in a notice in the Federal Register in August, was created by a task force led by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Developing and implementing a national aquatic animal health plan,” the notice said, “has become urgent for two reasons: the growing need to protect our domestic commerce and resources, and the advent of new health regulations by foreign governments that restrict the importation of live and processed aquatic animals from the United States.”
Without a national health plan to identify, report and manage pathogens, international commerce in some aquatic animals could be restricted or eliminated, the task force said.
To view the NAAHP and submit comments electronically, go to www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/
main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2008-0096.
To submit comments via mail, send two copies to Docket No. APHIS-2008-0096, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. [October 2009 PET AGE]
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