Global Security Newswire

The United States finalized animal import regulations this week to prevent a monkeypox outbreak in the United States, Reuters reported (see GSN, June 12).

In June, officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an interim ban on the import and transport of prairie dogs and a number of rodents from Africa.

“Today’s actions will minimize the likelihood of additional problems related to monkeypox,” FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said (Reuters/Planet Ark, Nov. 5).

In June, pet prairie dogs sparked a monkeypox outbreak in several U.S. states. The prairie dogs were reportedly infected by a Giant Gambian rat while they were housed in a pet store.

Health officials have questioned why the rat was allowed into the United States.

“Why in Sam Hill we let a fat, infected Gambian rat into America I’ll never know,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said earlier this year (David McGlinchey, Global Security Newswire, Nov. 5).