Effective July 17, 2015, Federal Express (FedEx) will no longer accept for transport Select Agents. FedEx will continue to accept for transport Category A infectious substances.
Please review the below to determine if this change will impact your future shipments.
What is an Infectious Substance?
A Category A substance (pathogen or agent) is “an infectious substance which is transported in a form that, when exposure to it occurs, is capable of causing permanent disability, or life- threatening or fatal disease to otherwise healthy humans or animals”.
Category A pathogens and substances likely to contain Category A pathogens must be assigned the UN number UN2814 (proper shipping name: Infectious Substance, Affecting Humans) or UN2900 (proper shipping name: Infectious Substance, Affecting Animals). If a Category A pathogen/substance is capable of causing disease in both humans and animals, the pathogen/substance must shipped as a Category A substance affecting humans (UN2814).
What is the Federal Select Agent Program?
The Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Select Agents and Toxins (DSAT) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Agriculture Select Agent Services (AgSAS) to regulate the possession, use, and transfer of biological agents listed in 7 C.F.R. Part 331, 9 C.F.R. Part 121, and 42 C.F.R. Part 73 (select agents and toxins). The FSAP administers the select agents and toxins regulations in close coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS).
Authority:
For biological agents and toxins determined by HHS to have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety (HHS and Overlap select agents and toxins), the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (42 U.S.C. 262a) directs the promulgation of regulations to establish and enforce safety procedures for the possession and use of such select agents and toxins, including measures to ensure proper training and appropriate skills to handle such select agents and toxins. 42 U.S.C. § 262a(c).
For biological agents and toxins determined by USDA to have the potential to pose a severe threat to animal health or animal products (USDA and Overlap select agents and toxins), the Agricultural Bioterrorism Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8401) directs the promulgation of regulations to establish and enforce safety procedures for the possession and use of such select agents and toxins, including measures to ensure proper training and appropriate skills to handle such select agents and toxins. 7 U.S.C. 8401(c).
Section 7(a) of the Code of Federal Regulations (Registration and related security risk assessments) provides that unless exempted under sections 5 or 6, an individual or entity shall not possess, use, or transfer any select agent or toxin without a certificate of registration issued by the Federal Select Agent Program.
The following biological agents and toxins have been determined to have the potential to pose a severe threat to both human and animal health, to plant health, or to animal and plant products. An attenuated strain of a select agent or an inactive form of a select toxin may be excluded from the requirements of the Select Agent Regulations. Here is a list of excluded agents and toxins.