The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is eliminating the Voluntary Trichinae Certification Program and removing the regulations associated with the program from the Code of Federal Regulations.

“This program generates little producer participation, and this action is intended to benefit the swine industry by reducing possible confusion about the trichinae-free status of exported products,” the agency said.

Eliminating the Voluntary Trichinae Certification Program allows APHIS to direct resources to areas of greater need. APHIS will no longer maintain any activity associated with the program, such as training for qualified accredited veterinarians, on-farm audits, or any other administrative process associated with program maintenance and support.

The U.S. commercial swine herd is free of trichinae, which are parasitic nematodes (roundworms) found in many warm-blooded carnivores and omnivores, including swine. However, extremely limited participation in the voluntary program has caused some confusion with trading partners over the trichinae-free status of U.S. pork products. Eliminating the program will benefit the swine industry by reducing this confusion.

In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on March 3, 2021, APHIS proposed to eliminate the Voluntary Trichinae Certification Program. APHIS received five comments by May 3, 2021 from individual commenters without institutional affiliations supporting the proposed rule.

This action will be effective on October 25, 2021. The Federal Register notice may be viewed at Federal Register :: Public Inspection: Elimination of the Voluntary Trichinae Certification Program.