SECTION 58.1. Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) "Animal" includes livestock, exotic livestock, domestic fowl water fowl, and exotic fowl or any invertebrate or vertebrate.

(2) "Animal Product" means hides; bones; hoofs; horns; viscera; parts of animal bodies; litter, straw, or hay used for bedding; and any other substance capable of carrying insects or a disease that may endanger the livestock industry.

(3) "Caretaker of Animal" means a person presumed to control the animal if the person is the owner or lessee of the pen, pasture, or other place where the animal is located and has control of that place, or exercises care or control over the animal.

(4) "Dealer" means a person engaged in the business of buying or selling animals in commerce on the person's own account; as an employee or agent of the vendor, the purchaser, or both; or on a commission basis.

(5) "Declaration of State of Disaster" The Governor by executive order or proclamation may declare a state of disaster if the Governor finds a disaster has occurred or that the occurrence or threat of disaster is imminent.

(6) "Effect of Disaster Declaration" An executive order or proclamation issued by the Governor declaring a state of disaster:

(A) activates the disaster recovery and rehabilitation aspects of the state emergency management plan applicable to the area subject to the declaration; and

(B) authorizes the deployment and use of any forces to which the plan applies and the use or distribution of any supplies, equipment, and materials or facilities assembled, stockpiled, or arranged to be made available under this chapter or other law relating to disasters.

(7) "Emergency Management Plan Council" is composed of the heads of state agencies, boards, and commissions and representatives of organized volunteer groups to advise and assist the Governor in all matters relating to disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The commission is a member of that council.

(8) "Emergency Management Plan" is a state prepared plan together with annexes designed to address all emergency management functional responsibilities. This plan defines the organization, establishes operational concepts, assigns responsibilities, and outlines coordination procedures for accomplishing comprehensive emergency management objectives in Texas.

(9) "Exotic livestock" means grass-eating or plant-eating, single-hooved or cloven-hooved mammals that are not indigenous to this state and are known as ungulates, including animals from the swine, horse, tapir, rhinoceros, elephant, deer, and antelope families.

(10) "Exotic fowl" means any avian species that is not indigenous to this state. The term includes ratites.

(11) "Exposure or Infection" means if a veterinarian employed by the commission determines that a communicable disease exists among livestock, domestic animals, or domestic fowl or on certain premises or that livestock, domestic animals, or domestic fowl have been exposed to an agent of transmission of a communicable disease, the exposure or infection is considered to continue until the commission determines that the exposure or infection has been eradicated through methods prescribed by rule of the commission.

(12) "Feedlot" means a confined drylot area for finish feeding of cattle on concentrated feed with no facilities for pasturing or grazing. All cattle in a feedlot are considered a "herd" for purposes of these regulations.

(13) "Foreign Animal Diseases" means animal diseases recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture as not being found in the United States.

(14) "Hold Order" means a written commission order and action restricting movement of a herd, animal, or animal product pending the determination of disease status.

(15) "Livestock" includes cattle, horses, mules, asses, sheep, goats, hogs, domestic fowl, exotic livestock and exotic fowl.

(16) "Livestock market" means a stockyard, sales pavilion, or sales ring where livestock, exotic livestock, or exotic fowl are assembled or concentrated at regular or irregular intervals for sale, trade, barter, or exchange.

(17) "Show, fair, or exhibition" means a show, fair, or exhibition that permits livestock and poultry to enter for the purpose of showing or exhibiting livestock.

(18) "World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Diseases" Animal diseases which have the potential for very serious and rapid spread, irrespective of national borders, which are of serious socioeconomic or public health consequence and of major importance in the international trade of animals and animal products.

Source Note: The provisions of this §58.1 adopted to be effective December 11, 2001, 26 TexReg 10048; amended to be effective February 8, 2022, 47 TexReg 502