Final Rule: Evaluation and Recognition of the Animal Health Status of Compartments [Docket No. APHIS-2017-0105]

APHIS is establishing standards to allow it to recognize compartments for animal disease status, consistent with World Organization for Animal Health international standards. Under this action, when a foreign government submits a request for recognition of a compartment, APHIS will conduct a compartmentalization evaluation based on a list of factors that parallel those we use when conducting regionalization evaluations, and will provide for public notice of and comment on the risk assessment. The action also adds provisions for imposing import restrictions and/or prohibitions when a compartment it has recognized as disease-free experiences an outbreak and for lifting those sanctions once the outbreak has been controlled. These proposed standards provide a tool that may be used to preserve international trade when regionalization is not feasible. (Federal Register Vol. 85, No. 40, Friday 28 February 2020)