US authority APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) announced on August 23 the publication in the Federal Register of the proposed amendment to recognize the free status from Swine Vesicular Disease (SVD) of Italy, including the regions of Tuscany and Umbria (Federal Register: Swine Vesicular Disease Status of the Regions of Tuscany and Umbria, Italy). The good news comes after a iter particularly long and complex, for which the General Directorate of Animal Health and Veterinary Medicines and the Italian Embassy in Washington have collaborated for a long time in recent years.
The US procedure now provides that until October 23, 2023 (60 days in total) any interested American citizen can freely consult the dossier presented by Italy on the MVS and send your comments for a subsequent evaluation by APHIS, with the publication of a final notice always in the Federal Register.
This is certainly a positive step forward, even if not yet definitive, for the advancement of dossier Italian, which bodes well for the expansion of theexport of this sector so strategic for our country, given that, as stated in the document “APHIS has established that the surveillance, prevention, and control measures implemented by Italy are sufficient to minimize the probability of introducing MVS in the United States through the importation of species or products susceptible to these diseases” .
It should be remembered that the whole Italian territory was officially recognized as free from MVS pursuant to European legislation in March 2019.