(a) Shipping container requirements. Shipping containers used to transport live equine(s) to the United States must meet the following requirements:

(1) Containers must be new or cleaned and disinfected in a manner that sufficiently reduces the risk of introduction or dissemination of any pests or diseases of livestock into the United States.

(2) Containers must be of sufficient size and construction to reasonably assure that live equine(s) are transported safely.

(3) Stocking density of live equine(s) must not be to an extent that impinges on the animals' safety during transportation.

(4) Guidance on how to meet these requirements may be found in the Live Animals Regulations (LAR), as amended, published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) or the Terrestrial Animal Health Code published by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). The Administrator may also approve alternative guidance than that described in the LAR or the Terrestrial Animal Health Code.

(b) Inspection: All aircraft and other means of conveyance (including shipping containers thereon) moving into the United States from any foreign region are subject to inspection without a warrant by properly identified and designated inspectors to determine whether they are carrying any animal, carcass, product or article regulated or subject to disposal under any law or regulation administered by the Secretary of Agriculture for prevention of the introduction or dissemination of any communicable animal disease.

(c) Unloading requirements: Whenever in the course of any such inspection at any port in the United States the inspector has reason to believe that the means of conveyance or container is contaminated with material of animal (including poultry) origin, such as, but not limited to, meat, organs, glands, extracts, secretions, fat, bones, blood, lymph, urine, or manure, so as to present a danger of the spread of any communicable animal disease, the inspector may require the unloading of the means of conveyance and the emptying of the container if he or she deems it necessary to enable him or her to determine whether the means of conveyance or container is in fact so contaminated. The principal operator of the means of conveyance and his or her agent in charge of the means of conveyance shall comply with any such requirement under the immediate supervision of, and in the time and manner prescribed by, the inspector.

(d) Cleaning and disinfection: Whenever, upon inspection under this section, an inspector determines that a means of conveyance or shipping container is contaminated with material of animal origin so as to present a danger of the spread of any communicable animal disease, he or she shall notify the principal operator of the means of conveyance or his or her agent in charge, of such determination and the requirements under this section. The person so notified shall cause the cleaning and disinfection of such means of conveyance and container under the immediate supervision of, and in the time and manner prescribed by, the inspector.

(e) Shipping container. For purposes of this section, the term “shipping container” means any container of a type specially adapted for use in transporting any article on the means of conveyance involved.