The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Department of Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are sponsoring a public meeting to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items, and draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 20th Session of the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods (CCRVDF), which will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico from May 7 - 11, 2012. 

The public meeting will be held on March 23, 2012 from 1 - 4 p.m. at the Jamie L. Whitten Building, USDA, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Room 107-A, Washington, D.C. 20250. Documents and agenda items related to the 20th Session of the CCRVDF will be accessible at the Codex website. 

The following items will be discussed during the public meeting:

Draft Maximum Residue Limits (MRL) for Veterinary Drugs

Revision of the Committee's Risk Analysis Principles

Proposed amendments to the Committee's terms of reference

Risk management recommendations for the veterinary drugs for which no MRL has been recommended by the expert scientific committee because of human health concerns

For more information, or to submit written comments about the 20th Session of the CCRVDF, contact: Kevin Greenlees, Senior Advisor for Science & Policy, Office of New Animal Drug Evaluation, HFV-100, FDA, Center for Veterinary Medicine, 7520 Standish Place, Rockville, Md. 20855, telephone: 1(240) 276-8214, fax: 1(240) 276-9538 or email: Kevin.Greenlees@fda.hhs.gov. 

For more information about the public meeting contact: Kenneth Lowery, US CODEX Office, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Room 4861, Washington, D.C. 20250, telephone: 1(202) 690-4042, fax: 1(202)720-3157 or email: Kenneth.Lowery@fsis.usda.gov.