The Texas Animal Health Commission (commission or TAHC) adopts amendments to §51.8, concerning Cattle, and §51.10, concerning Cervidae, without changes to the proposed text as published in the October 12, 2012, issue of the Texas Register (37 TexReg 8138). The rules will not be republished.

The purpose of the amendments is to change the Bovine Trichomoniasis (Trich) testing requirements and the Cervidae entry requirements.

The Trich control program was an industry driven initiative that was implemented in 2009. The concept included an annual review by TAHC staff and interested stakeholder organizations of the program's rules and policies and to subsequently suggest non-binding recommendations to the commission. The Trich Working Group met on May 15, 2012, to evaluate the Trich program. The group discussed the program overview to date, the management of infected herds, entry requirements, and ultimately discussed the need for possible changes to the program. There were two recommendations for rule changes for the interstate movement of breeding bulls into Texas that the commission considered. The first is to allow a bull to enter Texas on a laboratory pooled negative test sample (no greater than 5 total in sample). The second is to lengthen the time which a test result is valid from 30 days to 60 days to coincide with the existing intrastate time limit for a valid negative test.

The commission announced in June it had been determined that red deer (Cervus elaphus) and Sika deer (Cervus Nippon) are "susceptible species" for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and therefore must meet the same entry requirements as other cervid species regulated by the agency such as elk and moose. The new entry rules for red deer and Sika deer will require they originate from herds with at least five years of participation in an approved CWD status program. The agency decision was based in part on the disclosure that a farmed Red deer herd in Minnesota was confirmed positive for CWD in May of this year. Also, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently announced an interim final rule to establish a national CWD Herd Certification Program (HCP) and minimum requirements for interstate movement of deer, elk and moose, or cervids, in the United States. Participation in the program will be voluntary. The interim final rule amends the Agency's 2006 final rule which was never put into effect. These amendments to their CWD rule are intended to help control the spread of this disease by establishing minimum program standards for interstate movement. The federal Chronic Wasting Disease Herd Certification Program is found in 9 CFR Subchapter B, Part 55. As part of that rule change they are establishing that these species need to have participated for a minimum of five years in a CWD approved status program in order to move interstate. In recognition the Commission is amending the entry requirements to remove the three-year standard for cervid originating from states that had not detected CWD within their borders.

No comments were received regarding adoption of the amendments.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

The amendments are adopted under the following statutory authority as found in Chapter 161 of the Texas Agriculture Code. The commission is vested by statute, §161.041(a), with the requirement to protect all livestock, domestic animals, and domestic fowl from disease. The commission is authorized, by §161.041(b), to act to eradicate or control any disease or agent of transmission for any disease that affects livestock. If the commission determines that a disease listed in §161.041 of this code or an agent of transmission of one of those diseases exists in a place in this state among livestock, or that livestock are exposed to one of those diseases or an agent of transmission of one of those diseases, the commission shall establish a quarantine on the affected animals or on the affected place. That authority is found in §161.061.

As a control measure, the commission, by rule may regulate the movement of animals. The commission may restrict the intrastate movement of animals even though the movement of the animals is unrestricted in interstate or international commerce. The commission may require testing, vaccination, or another epidemiologically sound procedure before or after animals are moved. That authority is found in §161.054. An agent of the commission is entitled to stop and inspect a shipment of animals or animal products being transported in this state in order to determine if the shipment originated from a quarantined area or herd; or determine if the shipment presents a danger to the public health or livestock industry through insect infestation or through a communicable or noncommunicable disease. That authority is found in §161.048.

Section 161.005 provides that the commission may authorize the executive director or another employee to sign written instruments on behalf of the commission. A written instrument, including a quarantine or written notice signed under that authority, has the same force and effect as if signed by the entire commission.