New EA Posted

In a Federal Register published today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced the availability of a corrected version of the environmental assessment (EA) relative to the final rule that was published earlier this month. The rule was to amend the regulations regarding the importation of animals and animal products to recognize a category of regions that present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy into the United States and to add Canada to this category.

Since the posting of the EA, APHIS has become aware of errors in the document. For this reason, a corrected assessment has been posted to the following address: Environmental Assessment. The comment period on the EA has been extended until Feb. 17, 2005.