[Lfm] fedex inbound

[Cahir O'Kane]

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

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
>>
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> -- 
> Isabel M. Palacios
> Lecturer in Cell Biology
> School of Biological & Chemical Sciences
> Queen Mary University of London
> Scientific visitor at the University of Cambridge
> Founder of DrosAfricahttp://drosafrica.org
> BSCB Ambassadorhttp://bscb.org
>
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-- 

---------
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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