(1)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 (3) lays down veterinary certification requirements for imports into and transit, including storage during transit, through the Union of poultry and poultry products (‘the commodities’). It provides that the commodities may only be imported into and transit through the Union from the third countries, territories, zones or compartments listed in columns 1 and 3 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I thereto.

(2)

Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 also lays down the conditions for a third country, territory, zone or compartment to be considered as free from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

(3)

The United States is listed in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 as a third country from which imports into and transit through the Union of the commodities covered by that Regulation are authorised from certain parts of its territory, depending on the presence of HPAI outbreaks. That regionalisation was recognised by Regulation (EC) No 798/2008, as amended by Implementing Regulations (EU) 2015/243 (4), (EU) 2015/342 (5), (EU) 2015/526 (6), (EU) 2015/796 (7), (EU) 2015/1153 (8), (EU) 2015/1220 (9), (EU) 2015/1363 (10) and (EU) 2015/1884 (11), following outbreaks of HPAI in that third country.

(4)

An Agreement between the Union and the United States (12) provides for a swift mutual recognition of regionalisation measures in the event of outbreaks of a disease in the Union or in the United States (‘the Agreement’).

(5)

Following each HPAI outbreak, the United States has implemented a stamping-out policy in order to control HPAI and to limit its spread. The veterinary authorities of the United States suspended issuing veterinary certificates for consignments of commodities intended for export to the Union from the entire territory of the affected States or from parts thereof which have been placed under veterinary restrictions and which are subject to Union regionalisation measures.

(6)

Since mid-June 2015, no further outbreaks of HPAI have been detected in the United States. There are no longer veterinary restrictions in place for imports into the Union of commodities referred to in column 4 of the table in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 for the whole territory of the United States, except for the State of Minnesota. The last HPAI outbreak on a poultry holding in Minnesota was detected on 5 June 2015. On 24 November 2015, the United States submitted updated information to the Commission on the epidemiological situation in Minnesota and the measures it has taken to prevent the spread of HPAI, including stamping-out operations for infected poultry flocks and for flocks on poultry holdings that were considered as dangerous contact premises.

(7)

In addition, the United States has reported the completion of cleaning and disinfection measures following the stamping-out operations undertaken on poultry holdings in Minnesota. It also reported that the required surveillance for avian influenza, carried out during the three month period following the completion of the stamping-out operations after the last HPAI outbreak in Minnesota was finalised by 10 September 2015, with favourable results.

(8)

The information provided by the United States has now been evaluated by the Commission. On the basis of that evaluation, as well as the commitments laid down in the Agreement and the guarantees provided by the United States, it is appropriate to lift the restrictions on the introduction into the Union of commodities referred to above from the State of Minnesota and to indicate the date as of when that State may again be considered free of HPAI and imports into the Union of commodities originating from Minnesota should again be authorised.

(9)

The entry for the United States in the list in Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended to take account of the current epidemiological situation in Minnesota. Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 798/2008 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(10)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,