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Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Kentucky Posts: 464
| Pet Product News article
For what it's worth. I just saw this in Pet Product News. http://www.petproductnews.com/ppn/de...d=3707&search=
U.S. Tightens Koi Import Rules to Battle Fish Disease In efforts to stop a contagious fish disease from coming to the United States, the government has for the first time slapped restrictions on imported koi and goldfish. Officials admit the rules will drive up ornamental fish prices because large importers will be hit with annual fees up to $20,000 each. There are currently no reported cases of the disease, spring viremia of carp, in the United States, and the new restrictions are aimed primarily at fish imported from Asia, including top koi exporter Japan. Since 2002, three U.S. cases of the deadly disease have been linked to fish imported from Asian suppliers, officials said. The regulations, which were to go into effect Sept. 29 without public comment, require that each shipment of live koi, goldfish or carp be inspected for the disease in the country of origin, and inspected again by officials once in U.S. seaports and airports. Only larger U.S. seaports, airports and border crossings can accept such imports. The regulations even cover koi and goldfish brought into the United States by tourists as part of their luggage, an exemption officials rejected because they could not be certain that even such hobbyist fish wouldn’t be dumped into a stream or end up in a U.S. fish farm. The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which wrote the regulations, says there hasn’t been an outbreak of the disease within the nascent U.S. ornamental fish industry and the problem is considered "a foreign animal disease." But agency officials said that the disease, first reported in Yugoslavia in 1969, is so contagious and would be so damaging to the U.S. fish farm industry, and potentially to wild freshwater fish as well, that it cannot be allowed to get a toehold here. The disease spreads via live animals through their waste and from inanimate objects contaminated with the virus. It survives for a long period in water and mud, which is why the regulations require shippers to scour containers with chlorine and iodine before fish are shipped. There is no U.S.-approved vaccine for the disease and about 70 percent of the young fish that get the disease die, officials said. Older fish have a higher tolerance, but once there is an outbreak all fish in the same water must be killed, APHIS said in its regulations. APHIS scientists said that spring viremia of carp is caused by eponymous rhabdovirus. It causes fish to have "pop-eye," "dropsy" and "hemorrhages in the gills," among other symptoms. Making the disease even more dangerous is that some fish with the disease show no symptoms but still spread it. The regulations are urgency measures that, under law, don’t need public comment to be adopted, officials said. But APHIS said it will accept comments from people and businesses affected and it could make some changes to the rules as a result. APHIS does not have current figures on how many fish are being imported into the country that would fall under the regulations. In 1998, the United States imported $45.1 million worth of live ornamental fish, about 60 percent from Asia. That year the United States exported $10.6 million in such fish. Then there were 76 carp farms, 34 feeder goldfish farms, 115 koi and 65 ornamental goldfish farms in the United States, with annual sales of $21.5 million. The regulations identify the following species of live fish, fertilized eggs and gametes (fish cells) subject to the new controls: "Common carp, including koi, grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp, goldfish, tench and sheatfish." The agency said that new fees for permits and inspections would run from $378 to $504 per shipment. The average cost of permits for an importer with seven shipments a year would be $685, and the average cost of inspections for an importer with four or more shipments a year would be $2,700 to $3,650 a year. Officials said a small number of firms import more than 40 shipments a year and their costs would be $15,000 to $20,000 a year. The regulations are expected to cost all importers as much $316,512 a year in inspection fees and $59,032 for import permits. APHIS expects importers to pass along the costs in higher prices. "While it is anticipated that the permit and inspection cost may have a discernible impact on prices, we believe the benefits of preventing depopulation and cleaning and disinfecting expenditures, will exceed any negative price effects," the agency said. All fish that are covered by the new regulations must be held at the port of entry until released by the port veterinarian. The regulations also give the agency the authority to set aside the rules when importation will not result in the introduction of the disease. In addition, the regulations don’t generally apply to fish being shipped through the United States if shippers place the fish in an agency-approved holding facility and have a permit. All fish imported under the new regulations must have an import permit and all shipments must have a health certificate from the exporting country, in English and issued by a "veterinarian of the national government of the exporting region" or other authority saying that the fish being shipped were inspected for spring viremia of carp and are healthy. The regulations say that fish can be imported only from other countries that can show that they have a spring viremia testing program in place, test fish for the disease twice a year and can show that the fish have a disease-free history for at least two years. Once fish regulated by the rules arrive at a U.S. port, they must be inspected by a port veterinarian, who can refuse the fish entry if any traces of the disease are found. Only these airports and seaports in the United States will accept fish regulated by these new rules: Los Angeles; San Francisco; Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Atlanta; Honolulu; Chicago; Boston; Newark, N.J.; New York; Portland, Ore.; Dallas-Fort Worth; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and border crossings at Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., Seattle, Sumas, Wash., and Otay Mesa, Calif. Other ports may be approved by the agency. Comments on the regulations can be submitted at the www.regulations.gov by clicking on the "search regulations and federal actions" box. |
09-19-2006
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Cost v Benefit aspects of new regs. 
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