Accredited Veterinarians; Optional Digital Signature

We are proposing to accept digital signatures from accredited veterinarians as an additional option for official certificates, forms, records, and reports to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Currently, we require hand written signatures on all such documents. We believe that accepting digital signatures may benefit accredited veterinarians and the industries they serve by reducing the turn around time for these documents. This proposed action would relieve restrictions that appear to be unnecessary.