Date: Monday, April 24, 2006

Re:	AUSTRALIAN SNAIL INSPECTIONS

There has been a change in the expected number of snail inspections for Australian cargo as per the following notice:

Upon review the interception rate of actionable snails on containers of Australian product nationally and in our port has decreased considerably in the last month. This may be a reflection of increased inspection controls in Australia, change in climate or a mixture of things. We will continue to monitor the containers arriving from Australia although modify our inspection rates in a two step action.

Starting immediately the ATU will now target 28 random containers/per line/per vessel. If no snails are found in a 30 to 60 day period, we will then adjust the target rate to 14 random containers/per line/ per vessel. If actionable snails are found we will increase our monitoring as necessary.

I want to commend all involved for your hard work in mitigating the approach of these invasive pests.

Hal Fingerman
Dept. Homeland Security
US Customs & Border Protection
Chief, Agriculture Operations