Volume 3

National shellfish sanitation program manual of operations.

  • United States. Public Health Service. Division of Environmental Engineering and Food Protection
Date:
1965]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: National shellfish sanitation program manual of operations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The rating officer will review each survey jointly with his counterpart in the State shell- fish control agency. If in the course of review, defects were noted which might result in the interstate spread of disease, the rating officer shall immediately notify the senior officer of the State shellfish control agency and the Public Health Service Headquarters office of these con- ditions. The rating officer and the State offi- cials shall take whatever steps may be necessary and feasible to prevent the interstate shipment of such contaminated or dangerous shellfish. Form III, Evaluation of Sanitary Surveys and Resurveys, will be initially completed by the rating officer on the basis of information ob- tained through his review of the State-main- tained growing area files. These data will then be corroborated by field inspection. The rating officer, in the company of a State agency repre- sentative, will visit a representative number of approved and restricted growing areas to de- termine if the information in the growing area files portrays accurately those conditions which influence the sanitary quality of the areas. Where possible, program appraisals should be so scheduled that all “Approved” areas will be reviewed at least once during each 4-year period. The rating officer will consider the bioassay surveillance program as a component of the sanitary survey in those areas in which toxic shellfish poison may reasonably be expected to occur. An approximate weight of 40 percent should be applied to those areas in which this item is applicable. For example, a growing area sanitary survey might be rated as 87 per- cent, but it might be determined by inspection that the bioassay surveillance program was de- fective. In this case, a 40-percent deduction should be made with a resulting value of 47 for the areas involved. Growing areas having a sanitary survey rating of less than 70 percent should not ordi- narily be approved for further harvesting of shellfish for direct marketing. 5. Relaying, Depletion, and Depuration. Adequate public-health control of relaying, de- pletion, and controlled depuration is essential because these practices permit the eventual marketing of shellfish which were initially dangerously polluted. The degree to which 10 these procedures are utilized varies greatly in the several States. Also, the relative impor- tance of effective control varies with the initial quality of the shellfish. To appraise the effectiveness of relaying, de- pletion, and controlled depuration operations, the rating officer should review the office records of the State agency and, to the extent possible, should make field checks to verify the accuracy of these records. The rating officer should at- tempt to observe at least one depletion operation and should review all records of other depletion operations which have been carried on. In completing Form IV, the rating officer should observe the following general guides: (a) the transportation of shellfish between Approved areas is not relaying; (b) the transplanting of seed shellfish, i.e., submarket sized shellfish, is not relaying; and (c) shellfish relaying during periods when shellfish may not be legally har- vested for conservation or other reasons is not relaying, provided such operations are con- cluded at least two weeks in advance of the legal harvesting season. In completing Form IV, the rating officer should allow credit in propor- tion to the percentage of the relayed shellfish which are handled in accord with the provisions of PHS Pub. No. 33, Part I. 6. Control of Harvesting From Closed Areas.—In many States the prevention of com- mercial shellfish harvesting from polluted or toxic areas has importance equal to or greater than that of any other element. However, ade- quate appraisal of this program element is diffi- cult because of the widely varying technical and administrative situations which are encoun- tered. For these same reasons, the National Shellfish Sanitation Program has not developed patrol requirements with the same specificity as those applied to sanitary survey or plant inspec- tion elements. The rating officer will concentrate on identi- fying and evaluating the apparent strengths or weaknesses of the system. The rating officer will not be expected to prove that a State patrol system is inadequate, but only to show that the system is such that violators might go unappre- hended or that the prosecution is such that there is insufficient deterrent to violators.
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