title: Application of risk assessment to international trade in animals and animal products.
abstract: NAFTA and GATT have specified that we must base import decisions on sound scientific information. This includes the use of risk assessment procedures to justify excluding or restricting the international movement of either live animals or products from animals. Procedures and techniques have been described for calculating the risk of almost any hazard that one can imagine. Of particular concern to animal health professionals are the risks associated with introducing known or unknown disease agents into a population of animals that has been previously free of a specific disease. Traditional risk assessment procedures calculate the probability that a disease agent transmission will occur and the cost of such an event. The responsible manager must decide on an acceptable threshold of risk. A set of criteria for determining what risk is acceptable has been developed that categorizes risks for importing animals or animal products from any region of the world based on classification of the region as negligible, slight, low, moderate, high, or unknown risk.
authors.affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Riverdale, Maryland 20737, USA.
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Metcalf
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Blackwell
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Acree
mesh_terms: D000820:Animal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000592:standards*; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D007391:International Cooperation; D008460:Meat / Q000592:standards; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009656:North America; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States