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Animals > Imports > Policies / Procedures

Development of New Import Protocols Procedures for Clients

AHPD-DSAE-IE-2003-3-4
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The Animal Health and Production Division (AHPD) of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is responsible for the decision to allow or prohibit importation of animals, animal germplasm and animal-sourced products because of the associated level of animal disease risk. AHPD may establish specific conditions under which importation may proceed, e.g., testing, quarantine, in order to safeguard the Canadian animal health status.

In order to establish the above, an evaluation of the disease risk associated with imports must be conducted for the importation of a new species (animal or product) and/or the importation of an already assessed species from a new country. This applies to any commodity/country combination where the CFIA does not currently have import conditions listed on the CFIA's Automated Import Reference System (AIRS).

The main tools used in this process consist of a country assessment and a hazard identification:

Country assessments provide us with information on the current status of an exporting country for diseases which have been identified as hazards for the commodity in question, as well as information on the country’s import controls, surveillance procedures, control measures, etc.
A hazard identification is completed for a species or animal product and identifies all the diseases of concern relative to that species/commodity that need to be considered when developing an import protocol to ensure we safeguard Canada’s animal population and health status. Many of these tables have already been established and can be viewed on the CFIA's Animal Health Risk Assessment Framework website.

Each initial request will be reviewed to determine the level of evaluation required. Within approximately three weeks of receipt of the letter of request, the client will be provided with a response which indicates one of the following:

1.	Request to be refused based on already established barriers, for example, live cattle from countries not officially recognized by Canada as free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
2.	Evaluation to be conducted within the Animal Health and Production Division as one or both of the required tools is already established, i.e. bovine embryos from Spain. We currently have a hazard table for bovine embryos and have sufficient knowledge of the veterinary infrastructure in Spain. Spain is also a member of the Office International des Epizooties and reports regularly on their animal health status for List A and List B diseases.
3.	If one of the required tools is not established. A decision will be provided indicating whether or not a full risk assessment is required.
4.	If neither of the required tools is established, the request will be submitted for full risk assessment. These assessments are submitted first to the Director, Animal Health Production Division to be given a priority and then on to the National Manager of the Animal Health Risk Assessment Unit for addition to their priority list.

Please note the following:

Evaluations can take on average anywhere from two months to a year to conduct. You will be provided with an estimated time of completion within three weeks of the formal request.

If it is determined that a visit to the country of export is a requirement to collect data relevant to the evaluation, the costs associated with the travel of a CFIA employee/s will be the responsibility of the client.

Depending on the type of evaluation required, extra fees will be imposed for the issuance of import permits for a two year period from the date a new protocol is implemented:

Evaluations other than full risk assessments:	$100 per single entry permit $175 per multiple entry permit
Full risk assessment:	$1035 per single entry permit $1310 per multiple entry permit

Although a risk assessment is conducted, this does not guarantee that upon completion import conditions can be developed because the assessment may determine that the risk is unacceptable.

All requests must be submitted in the form of a letter addressed to:

Ms. Carole-Lynn Pilon
Client Relations Officer
Import/Export, Animal Health and Production Division
59 Camelot Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0Y9
Fax: 613-228-6630

Please ensure you provide the following details in your letter in order to prevent any delays in the initial review process: background, a full description of the commodity, the volume, quantity, frequency and time-frames of the proposed importation and any additional information you feel may be helpful to the evaluation.

January 26, 2006

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