[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 187 (Tuesday, September 28, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 59605-59606]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-24294]
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Rules and Regulations
Federal Register
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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 187 / Tuesday, September 28, 2010 /
Rules and Regulations
[[Page 59605]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
9 CFR Part 161
[Docket No. APHIS-2006-0093]
RIN 0579-AC04
National Veterinary Accreditation Program; Currently Accredited
Veterinarians Performing Accredited Duties and Electing to Participate
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Final rule; extension of period for election to participate.
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SUMMARY: We are announcing to the public that veterinarians who are
currently accredited in the National Veterinary Accreditation Program
(NVAP) may continue to perform accredited duties and to elect to
continue to participate in the NVAP until further notice. The
regulations indicate that currently accredited veterinarians must elect
to continue their participation in the NVAP in order to maintain their
accredited status, after which we will confirm their continued
participation and notify them of their first renewal date. Various
logistical obstacles have prevented us from processing in a timely
manner the elections to participate that we have received. Allowing
currently accredited veterinarians to continue to perform accredited
duties and to elect to participate will ensure that we obtain an
accurate and complete record of accredited veterinarian participation
while continuing to allow veterinarians to provide accredited services
to the public.
EFFECTIVE DATE: September 28, 2010.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Todd Behre, National Veterinary
Accreditation Program, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 200, Riverdale,
MD 20737; (301) 851-3401.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The regulations in 9 CFR chapter I,
subchapter J (parts 160 through 162, referred to below as the
regulations), govern the accreditation of veterinarians and the
suspension and revocation of such accreditation. These regulations are
the foundation for the National Veterinary Accreditation Program
(NVAP). Accredited veterinarians are approved by the Administrator of
the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department
of Agriculture, to perform certain regulatory tasks to control and
prevent the spread of animal diseases throughout the United States and
internationally.
On December 9, 2009 (74 FR 64998-65013, Docket No. APHIS-2006-
0093), we published a final rule in the Federal Register that amended
the regulations to establish two accreditation categories in place of
the former single category, to add requirements for supplemental
training and renewal of accreditation, and to offer program
certifications. The final rule was effective February 1, 2010, a date
intended to give us time to prepare to implement the new regulations,
which affect about 71,000 veterinarians who are currently accredited.
Section 161.3 of the final rule contained the requirements for
supplemental training and renewal of accreditation. Because accredited
veterinarians have not previously been required to renew their
accreditation or complete supplemental training, we established in
paragraph (d) of Sec. 161.3 a process allowing currently accredited
veterinarians to determine whether they wished to continue to
participate in the NVAP.
Paragraph (d) of Sec. 161.3 states that veterinarians who are
accredited as of February 1, 2010, may continue to perform accredited
duties between February 1, 2010, and the date of their first renewal.
In accordance with paragraph (d), APHIS provided notice for 3 months to
accredited veterinarians who were accredited as of February 1, 2010, to
notify them that they must elect to participate in the NVAP as a
Category I or Category II veterinarian. Paragraph (d) requires
veterinarians to elect to continue to participate within 3 months of
the end of the notification period, or their accredited status will
expire.
Paragraph (d) of Sec. 161.3 goes on to state that when APHIS
receives notice from an accredited veterinarian that he or she elects
to participate, APHIS will notify the accredited veterinarian of his or
her date for first renewal. The accredited veterinarian must then
complete all the training requirements for renewal, as described in
Sec. 161.3, by his or her first renewal date. The notification of the
first renewal date was thus intended to be the means by which APHIS
notifies an accredited veterinarian that we have received notice that
he or she has elected to participate and can thus continue performing
accredited duties.
To date, approximately 50,000 veterinarians have elected to
continue to participate, and another 10,000 are expected to do so.
Processing these elections to continue to participate involves many
steps to verify, clarify, and proofread the information provided. At
times, we have needed to contact State boards, area offices of the
Veterinary Services program, and the accredited veterinarians
themselves. As much as possible, we want to clear up any omissions or
potential errors so that we have correct information for all accredited
veterinarians in our database. Accredited veterinarians provide
valuable regulatory services to their communities, allowing
agricultural commerce to continue and ensuring that travelers can meet
regulatory requirements for pets. It is important that those services
continue to be provided.
As a result, we have not yet been able to review all of the forms
submitted by accredited veterinarians to elect to continue to
participate, ensure that the forms accurately reflect the
veterinarians' intent and situation, and provide notice to the
veterinarians of their first renewal date. This process is expected to
take several more months, during which we will continue to need
veterinarians to perform accredited duties.
In addition, we stated in the Background section of the final rule
that we will notify veterinarians who routinely perform accredited
veterinarian duties and have not yet elected to continue participating
as accredited veterinarians, to ensure that such veterinarians do not
inadvertently
[[Page 59606]]
let their accreditation lapse. We have discovered that we need
additional time to reach out to such veterinarians to ensure that they
are aware of the new requirements. We have also found that some
veterinarians who received notification did not understand what the
notification meant, and we plan to work to clarify the new requirements
for currently accredited veterinarians in the coming months.
Therefore, this document announces that currently accredited
veterinarians may continue to perform accredited duties until further
notice, even if they have not received a date for their first
accreditation renewal from APHIS. We will also allow currently
accredited veterinarians to continue to elect to participate in the
NVAP.
We currently expect to be able to process all the elections to
participate we have received by March 2011. When we are closer to
reaching this goal, we will publish another document in the Federal
Register that will amend Sec. 161.3(d) to indicate the date by which
veterinarians must elect to continue to participate in the NVAP.
Done in Washington, DC, this 17\th\ day of September 2010.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-24294 Filed 9-27-10; 8:45 am]
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