Security measures used by APHIS officers to issue and endorse the animal health certificate of origin for export:

 

1. Responsibility of APHIS / Veterinary Services.

Veterinary Services / APHIS develops and creates computer generated health certificates and subsequently publishes them online for use by USDA Accredited Veterinarians.

 

2. Responsibility of USDA Accredited Veterinarians.

 

The USDA accredited veterinarian is responsible for inspecting the animals, germplasm, birds, or eggs to be exported, obtaining samples for laboratory tests (if required), and certifying that the health conditions required by the country of destination (Mexico) have been met. The accredited veterinarian will obtain the health certificate and complete the required certifications, as well as the test information.

 

3. Office of the Federal Area Veterinarian (AVIC) in Charge.

 

The health certificate is received by the AVIC office where the following verification procedures are carried out:

 

3a. Revision of the health certificate by the export document examiner or the designated person.

 

a) That the health certificate is complete.

 

b) That the issuing veterinarian is a USDA accredited veterinarian.

 

c) That all documents and laboratory tests meet the requirements of both the importing country and the United States Department of Agriculture.

 

d) That the laboratory used to carry out the tests is an approved laboratory.

 

e) That the test results are original, carbon copies or faxed from the laboratory to the AVIC office in the state.

 

Once this review is complete, a unique number is assigned to the health certificate that is placed at the top right of each page. It is mandatory to use the following format when assigning the unique number:

the first two characters are letters that correspond to the postal abbreviation of the state where the area office is located, the following two characters are numbers that represent the last two digits of the fiscal year current, and the remaining characters are the assigned numbers of the health certificate, issued in sequential order. For the state of Texas, note that only one letter "T" is used. An example for the state of Ohio: OH-13001.

 

The health certificate is reviewed for the following:

3b. Federal Vet Endorsing Review

 

The Veterinary of the federal area office that carries out the export certification reviews the IHC, which is not lacking in its integrity and verifies that the issuing veterinarian is accredited, that the required tests have been done and that all the importing country's requirements have been met.

 

4. Application of the seal.
 

After signing, the certificate is sealed with an embossed USDA seal, which is applied both to the certificate number on each page and to the signature of the federal veterinarian. This is done to avoid altering any page of the certificate.

 

Regarding the certificate, the federal vet's endorsement must be in a different ink color (blue) than the letter of the document and with a USDA embossed seal to avoid undue alteration.

 

5. Maintain records at the Federal Area Office (AVIC)

 

There are two copies of each health certificate. The original is provided to the exporter and the copies are kept at the area office. One copy is filed in accordance with records management and the other in accordance with user records management for audit purposes, for three years.
 

Electronic signatures of accredited veterinarians are now accepted for all live animal certificates that come from U.S., including chicks up to three days old and fertile eggs.

For more information on this please visit the following link: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/export/international-standard-setting-activities-oie/regionalization/sa_by_country/sa_m/ct_animal_mexico

 

Goods and Agencies Involved