All,
I just received an email that had the following text in it:
Aquatic Snail Permits Now Required. The United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS), implemented existing regulations on April 5, 2006 to: 1) require importers and interstate sellers of marine and freshwater aquatic snails to acquire a three-year permit, 2) prohibit the importation or interstate movement of all members of the Family Ampullariidae except the interstate sale of Pomacea bridgesi (diffusa), and 3) routinely inspect shipments of aquatic plants and aquarium supplies that may contain aquatic snails. To acquire the appropriate permit (USDA PPQ Permit 526) visit http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/ ... ndex.shtml .
While this has been on the books since 2006, I haven't heard of it being implemented until now. Note that it includes marine snails. For those of you in the pet industry, the same rules were applied to giant millipedes (as a potential plant pest) and these were effectively removed from the trade because importers apparently didn't bother applying for permits.
Giant African land snails have been a huge issue in tropical areas, APHIS is worried about similar issues with other species - especially apple snails. I support their efforts in this regard, and just wanted to let people know that the 526 permits are not all that difficult to acquire, and importers and re-sellers should consider applying for them if they deal with snails in trade.
Jay Hemdal
I just received an email that had the following text in it:
Aquatic Snail Permits Now Required. The United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS), implemented existing regulations on April 5, 2006 to: 1) require importers and interstate sellers of marine and freshwater aquatic snails to acquire a three-year permit, 2) prohibit the importation or interstate movement of all members of the Family Ampullariidae except the interstate sale of Pomacea bridgesi (diffusa), and 3) routinely inspect shipments of aquatic plants and aquarium supplies that may contain aquatic snails. To acquire the appropriate permit (USDA PPQ Permit 526) visit http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/ ... ndex.shtml .
While this has been on the books since 2006, I haven't heard of it being implemented until now. Note that it includes marine snails. For those of you in the pet industry, the same rules were applied to giant millipedes (as a potential plant pest) and these were effectively removed from the trade because importers apparently didn't bother applying for permits.
Giant African land snails have been a huge issue in tropical areas, APHIS is worried about similar issues with other species - especially apple snails. I support their efforts in this regard, and just wanted to let people know that the 526 permits are not all that difficult to acquire, and importers and re-sellers should consider applying for them if they deal with snails in trade.
Jay Hemdal
