By: Springer  S.B. No. 1997
         (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 2021; April 1, 2021, read
  first time and referred to Committee on Water, Agriculture & Rural
  Affairs; April 20, 2021, reported favorably by the following vote:  
  Yeas 9, Nays 0; April 20, 2021, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the control of diseases of swine.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 161.041(a), Agriculture Code, is amended
  to read as follows:
         (a)  The commission shall protect all livestock, exotic
  livestock, domestic fowl, and exotic fowl from the following:
               (1)  tuberculosis;
               (2)  anthrax;
               (3)  glanders;
               (4)  infectious abortion;
               (5)  hemorrhagic septicemia;
               (6)  classical swine fever [hog cholera];
               (7)  Malta fever;
               (8)  foot-and-mouth disease;
               (9)  rabies among animals other than canines;
               (10)  bacillary white diarrhea among fowl;
               (11)  equine infectious anemia; and
               (12)  other diseases recognized as communicable by the
  veterinary profession.
         SECTION 2.  Section 165.002, Agriculture Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         Sec. 165.002.  [OWNER] TREATMENT. Except as otherwise
  provided by law, a representative of the commission or a person
  authorized by the commission may vaccinate, inoculate, or treat
  hogs [owned by that person] with classical swine fever [hog
  cholera] virus or serum or with another remedy[, and a county
  demonstration agent may vaccinate, inoculate, or treat any hogs in
  the county in which the agent is employed with hog cholera virus or
  serum or with another remedy].
         SECTION 3.  Section 165.003, Agriculture Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         Sec. 165.003.  SALE OR DISTRIBUTION OF UNATTENUATED
  CLASSICAL SWINE FEVER [HOG CHOLERA] VIRUS. (a) A person may not
  sell, offer for sale, barter, exchange, or give away unattenuated
  classical swine fever [hog cholera] virus.
         (b)  This section does not prohibit:
               (1)  acquisition, propagation, manufacture, or use of
  unattenuated classical swine fever [hog cholera] virus by, and on
  the licensed premises of, a firm operating under a United States
  veterinary license issued by the secretary of agriculture of the
  United States;
               (2)  manufacture of unattenuated classical swine fever
  [hog cholera] virus by a firm operating under a United States
  veterinary license for the sale or distribution in states in which
  use of attenuated classical swine fever [hog cholera] virus is
  permitted; or
               (3)  keeping vaccine on hand for purely experimental or
  research activities by a recognized college, university, school, or
  laboratory engaged in research activities.
         (c)  In this section, "unattenuated classical swine fever
  [hog cholera] virus" means a classical swine fever [hog cholera]
  virus that has not been modified or inactivated.
         SECTION 4.  Section 165.021, Agriculture Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         Sec. 165.021.  COOPERATION WITH U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
  AGRICULTURE. The commission may cooperate with the United States
  Department of Agriculture in the eradication of vesicular
  exanthema, foot and mouth disease of swine, classical swine fever
  [hog cholera], and other diseases of swine.
         SECTION 5.  Section 165.022, Agriculture Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         Sec. 165.022.  METHOD OF DISEASE ERADICATION. (a)
  Following notice and public hearing, the commission shall adopt
  rules for the enforcement of this subchapter, including rules
  providing for the manner, method, and system of eradicating swine
  diseases.
         (b)  The commission may by a two-thirds vote adopt rules
  under this section that are more stringent than the [may not exceed
  the rules relating to] minimum standards for cooperative programs
  adopted by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the
  United States Department of Agriculture.
         SECTION 6.  The heading to Section 165.042, Agriculture
  Code, is amended to read as follows:
         Sec. 165.042.  SALE OF UNATTENUATED CLASSICAL SWINE FEVER
  [HOG CHOLERA] VIRUS.
         SECTION 7.  The amendments made by this Act to replace
  references to "hog cholera" with "classical swine fever" are a
  clarification of existing law and do not imply that existing law may
  be construed as inconsistent with the law as amended by this Act.
         SECTION 8.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
 
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