USDA-AMS recently published guidelines for renewing derogations for compliance with European Union somatic cell count (SCC) and standard plate count (SPC) requirements. The program instructions have been revised to reflect the renewal process.

In summary, for a farm to be eligible for renewal of a derogation, one of the following must be met:

1. Acknowledgement via affidavit (example affidavit) of at least two corrective actions shall be documented for the second derogation (i.e., for the first renewal after the initial derogation).
2. The farm was in full compliance for at least one month since its last derogation. (The rolling mean decreased below 400,000 cells/ml for those farms with a SCC derogation or below 100,000 cells/ml for those farms on SPC derogation.)
3. The current rolling geometric mean (GM) is less than the GM for the same months a year earlier, i.e., May, June and July of 2012 compared with May, June and July of 2013, where the GM for 2013 is less.

Additionally, the farm must hold an active permit for producing milk issued by the state. Corrective actions must be documented via an affidavit or producer attestation. A coop may alter the sample form or use its own form so long as the corrective actions are documented and acknowledged by the producer.

Please contact Mitch Bowling (mbowling@usdec.org), Matt McKnight (mmcknight@usdec.org) or Beth Briczinski (bbriczinski@nmpf.org) at 703-528-3049 with any questions.