4.12.1301    DEFINITIONS

(1) "Article" is any item subject to a quarantine.

(2) "Department" means the Department of Agriculture.

(3) "Accredited Certifying Official (ACO)" is a federal, state, or county official accredited to perform phytosanitary inspections and sign phytosanitary certificates for commodities meeting phytosanitary requirements.

(4) "Fomite" is any inanimate object or substance capable of carrying an organism, functions to transfer an organism, or in any other way acts as a nonliving vector of a pest.

(5) "Location" is any place where quarantine pests, quarantine articles, plants, plant propagative material, plant products, and other associated items or materials are. This includes, but is not limited to, businesses; fields; gardens; production areas; propagation areas; greenhouses; processing facilities; places where regulated articles or plants are kept, sold, traded, bartered, used, given away, or distributed; and all conveyances.

(6) "Long-term quarantine" is a quarantine that lasts over 12 months.

(7) "Permit" is a written authorization issued by the department, another state, or the federal government and is approved by the department for the movement of any prohibited or restricted plant pests or quarantined articles.

(8) "Phytosanitary documentation" is legal paperwork certifying that visual inspections have been completed by a state or federal official and that all other requirements such as, but not limited to, surveys, laboratory tests, and treatments, have been met.

(9) "Phytosanitary inspection" is an inspection conducted by an individual trained and certified to determine if prohibited materials or organisms are present or to take official samples to be examined by a qualified individual or an accredited laboratory elsewhere.

(10) "Phytosanitary measure" is an action taken to assure that prohibited materials and/or organisms are not present in or on plants or plant materials.

(11) "Plant matter" is any plant species that includes, but is not limited to, agricultural, forest, range, nursery, or ornamental species; soil; fruit, vegetables, seeds, or nuts; any other plant part or propagative material; or plant product. This includes house, greenhouse, hothouse, potted (regardless of planting medium), bareroot, aquarium, pond or other water related, and windbreak plants.

(12) "Plant pest" is any organism that can directly or indirectly injure or cause damage in or to a plant, plant propagative material, or a plant product including, but not limited to, an insect, weed, fungus, virus, bacteria, parasite, pathogen, nematode, vector or other organism that meets the criteria as a pest established by department rule.

(13) "Proper documents" is a copy of the original invoice listing the origin of the articles, quantity and value of articles, location where the articles are destined to arrive, anticipated date of arrival, and/or other requirements specified under a quarantine.

(14) "Quarantine" is a rule, order, or other legal instrument duly imposed or enacted by the department on regulated areas or articles.

(15) "Quarantined article" is anything covered by a quarantine order in ARM 4.12.1302, 4.12.1303, or an emergency declared by the director of the Department of Agriculture.

(16) "Regulated area" is an area into which, within which, and/or from which plants, plant products, and other regulated articles are subject to phytosanitary measures or a quarantine to prevent the introduction and/or spread of quarantine pests.

(17) "Regulated article" is any plant, plant matter, propagative plant parts, plant products, associated plant material, container, conveyance, or any other object or material capable of harboring or spreading plant pests, and that is subject to phytosanitary measures or a quarantine.

(18) "Short-term quarantine" is a quarantine that lasts 12 months or less.

(19) "Vector" is an organism that transmits a pathogen.

History: 80-7-402, MCA; IMP, 80-7-402, MCA; NEW, 2009 MAR p. 343, Eff. 3/27/09; AMD, 2012 MAR p. 498, Eff. 3/9/12.