The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) held a regularly scheduled Commission meeting July 26, 2022, at its headquarters in Austin. The following rules were adopted and went into effect September 4, 2022.
Chapter 40, Chronic Wasting Disease
The TAHC adopted amendments to clarify, correct and update information regarding chronic wasting disease (CWD) management and the CWD Herd Certification Program (HCP).
The amendment to §40.1, Definitions, added “CWD-Exposed Herd” and “CWD-Positive Animal” to the list, and amended the definition for “complete herd inventory.” CWD-Exposed Herd is defined as a herd in which a CWD-positive animal has resided within five years prior to that animal’s diagnosis as CWD-positive, as determined by a TAHC or United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) representative. CWD-Positive Animal is defined as an animal that has had a diagnosis of CWD established through official confirmatory testing conducted by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories. To provide clarity and reduce confusion, the term “complete herd inventory” was replaced with “complete physical herd inventory” which is now defined as a visual verification of all animals and identifications to reconcile records maintained by the owner. The definitions were adjusted to align with the federal standards.
The amendments to §40.3, Herd Certification Program for Cervidae, are adopted to coincide with the federal standards. The amendment to §40.3(a)(3)(A) changed the timeframe from 72 hours to immediate notification for a herd owner to make a report to the TAHC of farmed or captive cervids that escape or disappear, and for all free-ranging cervids that enter the facility. The amendment to §40.3(c)(7)(C) removed the exception for lowering a herd to First Year status if the animal(s) test results are “not detected” postmortem within the first year after entry into the herd. The amendment to §40.3(d)(1) clarifies that one of the animal identifications must be an “official” form of animal identification approved by USDA. The amendment to §40.3(f)(1)(A) and (C) requires all identification to be visually verified on the animals during an initial inspection and a physical herd inspection. To remove redundancies, the rule in §40.3(a)(4)(C) was repealed and the provision that follows was renumbered accordingly. The adoption updates the term “complete physical herd inventory” and clarifies requirements for all enrollees during the initial inspection and subsequent physical herd inspections or when there is a discrepancy during annual inspections; see §40.3(f)(1)(A-C) for requirements. Non-substantive changes or grammatical corrections were also made in §40.3.
Chapter 51, Entry Requirements
The adopted amendment is located in §51.3(b)(2) and allows an exception to federal and state interstate cattle movement requirements. Cattle moved interstate must be accompanied by a certificate of veterinary inspection (CVI) in accordance with Texas Agriculture Code §161.054, Title 9 Code of Federal Regulations §86.5, and 4 TAC §51.2(b)(1). Federal regulations allow the movement of cattle without a CVI if the cattle are moved with documentation as agreed upon by animal health officials in the shipping and receiving states. TAHC Commissioners adopted a CVI exception for dairy calves if all parties involved execute and comply with the terms and conditions of the modified movement restriction agreement for 1 to 10-day old dairy calves from a single premises of origin.
Additionally, the existing CVI exception related to equine in §51.3(b) is amended to correct the term equidae to equine and no substantive changes were made.
All rules are available in the Texas Administrative Code under Title 4, Part 2 and the respective chapters. The Texas Administrative Code can be accessed through the TAHC website.
The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) was established in 1893 as the Livestock Sanitary Commission and charged with protecting the state’s domestic animals “from all contagious or infectious diseases of a malignant character.” TAHC remains true to this charge while evolving with the times to protect the health and marketability of all Texas livestock and poultry. Learn more about the TAHC by visiting www.tahc.texas.gov.
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