Exportation of Live Animals, Hatching Eggs, and Animal Germplasm From the United States

In a final rule published in the Federal Register on January 20, 2016, and effective on February 19, 2016, we revised our regulations regarding the exportation of livestock from the United States. Among other revisions, we expanded the scope of the regulations so that, if the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) knows that an importing country requires an export health certificate endorsed by the competent veterinary authority of the United States for any animal other than livestock or for any animal semen, animal embryos, hatching eggs, other embryonated eggs, or gametes intended for export to that country, the animal or other commodity must have an endorsed export health certificate in order to be eligible for export from the United States. While, in the preamble for that rule, we indicated that APHIS is the competent veterinary authority of the United States, and must endorse the export health certificate in such instances, this was not reflected in the regulations themselves. This document corrects that error.