[Lfm] fedex inbound

Wed Aug 26 10:58:15 BST 2020

Dear Olga,

It turns out is more complicated - but maybe (just about) workable. In 
correspondence that I had with APHA, they have confirmed that there is 
an exemption from BIP/BCP inspection for importing research laboratory 
animals, but to take advantage of this exemption, the shipment has to be 
authorised individually in advance by them (as the relevant UK 
authority). AFAIK, this involves emailing a request to SM-APHA-Imports 
(APHA) <Imports at apha.gov.uk> - when I recently emailed them, the replied 
by email and said to print the email and show it as evidence of advance 
authorisation one shipment only, to show exemption from inspection. 
However, they have not clarified whether this is the normal procedure - 
in the 21st century, it should be possible to have a simple online form 
for this, and return authorisation within days (or even minutes, if the 
criteria are met.)

But for now, to the best of my knowledge, it might be worth trying to 
get advance authorisation from APHA by return of email, send a PDF of 
their authorisation to whoever is sending you the flies, and ask them to 
include it with the shipping documents. And then let's share our 
experiences.

I'd encourage the community to please keep tweeting your experiences. 
I'd suggest using the hashtag #DrosImports, so that we can build up a 
public record of community needs and experiences. If you want, you can 
also tag @APHAgovuk.

If this is solved, it will hopefully take us to December this year. The 
next challenge will be the UK's post-Brexit import regulations: 
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/importing-animals-animal-products-and-high-risk-food-and-feed-not-of-animal-origin-from-1-january-2021. 
Whatever the new opportunities of Brexit are, I haven't (yet) seen the 
exemption for laboratory animal imports among them.

Best wishes - and good luck!

Cahir

P.S. I don't know whether the LFM list will accept this mail from me. If 
you think it's useful to circulate to the list, please check whether 
you've received it via the list, and repost it (once only!) if you haven't.

On 26/08/2020 10:15, Baron, Olga wrote:
> Dear LFM community,
>
> I am writing to see if anyone had recently success with the strategy 
> suggested by Cahir.
>
> How feasible is it currently to import BDSC fly orders via Fedex into UK?
>
> Many thanks,
> Olga
>
> ______________________
> Dr Olga Baron
> NC3R David Sainsbury Fellow
> https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/meet-our-david-sainsbury-fellows
> King's College London
> Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
> Wolfson CARD
> Wolfson Wing, Hodgkin Building, WW 3.24
> Guy's Campus
> London
> SE1 1UL
>
>
> phone
> office: +44(0)20 7848 6170
> mobile: +44 (0)7599 821082
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Lfm <lfm-bounces at londonflymeeting.org> on behalf of Cahir 
> O'Kane <cahiro at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* 12 July 2020 01:09
> *To:* lfm at londonflymeeting.org <lfm at londonflymeeting.org>; Cook, R. 
> Kimberley <ruacook at indiana.edu>; Annette Parks <anlparks at indiana.edu>; 
> flystock at indiana.edu <flystock at indiana.edu>; Kevin Cook 
> <kercook at indiana.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [Lfm] fedex inbound
>
> Hi Kofan and Isabel (and anyone else)
>
> The Drosophila Fedex import problem should (at least theoretically) be 
> solved - although I don't know whether this is yet happening in practice.
>
> The problem was that Drosophila could only be imported into the EU in 
> compliance with animal import procedures - which had been written with 
> larger or agricultural animals in mind. They therefore had to be 
> imported from outside the EU via a Border Inspection Post (BIP), where 
> they were subject to a veterinary inspection. If flies are imported to 
> the UK by Fedex, they arrive at Stansted Airport - unfortunately the 
> UK government has no BIP there, and so the flies got destroyed there.
>
> However, EU legislation was passed in 2017, which was intended to 
> solve this problem. After sustained lobbying by a number of people 
> including Jörg Grosshans, aided by his lawyer sister Anne-Marie (and 
> one brief supporting appearance from myself), a petition to the 
> European Parliament found general support there, and a clause was 
> included in the most recent omnibus legislation on imports of animals 
> and animal products:
>
> The full legislation (for those who want the citation) is here:
> https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32017R0625 
> <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Feur-lex.europa.eu%2Flegal-content%2FEN%2FTXT%2F%3Furi%3DCELEX%253A32017R0625&data=01%7C01%7Colga.baron%40kcl.ac.uk%7C25934988fda2418aa28008d825f7dcaf%7C8370cf1416f34c16b83c724071654356%7C0&sdata=do8gjdWIanZHSCbss1N1QeMSROKk2QnRkBSp3d2qhxA%3D&reserved=0>
>
> Article 48 (b) of this is a single line that exempts from control at 
> border posts: "animals and goods intended for scientific purposes".
>
> This legislation was meant to enter into force in all member states on 
> 14th December 2019 - this included the UK, and should still do.
>
> The bottom line
>
> 1. - Since 14th December 2019, UK (and EU27) Customs should no longer 
> be requiring a veterinary inspection for Drosophila melanogaster 
> "intended for scientific purposes". It might be advisable to enter 
> "for scientific purposes" on the Customs label, so that UK Customs 
> will know this.
>
> 2. There should no longer any regulatory reason for problems with 
> Fedex imports of Drosophila melanogaster to UK labs - nor to any EU27 
> Drosophila research lab.
>
> 3. Disclaimer - I don't know how far this happy conclusion has been 
> tested in practice, either via Stansted, or for fly imports into any 
> other EU member state from outside the EU (including from the UK to 
> the EU after the transition period ends at the end of 2020).
>
> Sorry for the long explanation - but I thought that it's better to be 
> informed if anyone wants to try it out.
>
> Best wishes to all,
>
> Cahir
>
>
> On 10/07/2020 17:18, Isabel Palacios wrote:
>>
>> no change that i know of
>>
>> it has to do with the lack of specialised personal at airports
>>
>> isa
>>
>> On 10/07/2020 16:18, kofan wrote:
>>
>>> Dear all
>>> Hopefully everyone is good and slowly getting back to the lab.
>>> I remember fedex stopped Drosophila import a while ago, but just 
>>> wonder if this has changed or any of you know a way around it?
>>>
>>> many thanks
>>> Kofan
>>>
>>> Dr Ko-Fan Chen
>>> Honorary Research Associate
>>> Jepson Laboratory
>>> UCL Institute of Neurology
>>> Queen Square House
>>> WC1N 3RX London
>>>
>>>
-- 
---------
Dr. Cahir O'Kane,  Reader in Genetics
Dept of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge, CB2 3EH, UK
Office: 01223-333177   International 44-1223-333177    Internal 33177
http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/research-groups/okane
http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?cokane
Twitter: @OKaneCahir  ORCID: 0000-0002-3488-2078
For colorblind-friendly figures and slides: http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/

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