Sec. 436.104. OYSTER PROGRAM. (a) The department shall conduct sanitary surveys, bay water and shellfish meat sampling, and any other activities that are necessary to classify the bays from which oysters are harvested from private leases or public reefs as authorized by Section 436.101.

(b) The department shall conduct reasonable and prudent sampling activities at the earliest possible time following the designation as a closed area of an area from which oysters are harvested from private leases or public reefs:

(1) if a question exists about the closure, to confirm the need for the closure; or

(2) if there is reason to believe that the sampling will result in opening the area.

(c) In implementing the oyster program, the department shall follow standards that are at least as stringent as the guidelines adopted by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program. The department's approach shall be consistent with the purpose and intent of the National Shellfish Sanitation Program and the federal Food and Drug Administration policy statements regarding the consumption of raw molluscan shellfish.

(d) Until Vibrio parahaemolyticus guidelines are formally adopted into the National Shellfish Sanitation Program, the department shall follow standards that are at least as stringent as guidelines of the Interim Control Plan for Vibrio parahaemolyticus of the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference for the purpose of designating harvest areas as closed areas related to Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

(e) The department shall open harvest areas designated as closed areas due to excessive levels of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in shellfish meat samples when the levels of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the shellfish meat samples return to baseline levels.

(f) The department shall open harvest areas designated as closed areas due to sporadic non-outbreak illnesses as specified in the Interim Control Plan when the levels in shellfish meats return to baseline levels or, if tdh+ serotypes were confirmed as the cause of the illnesses, when the virulent serotypes of Vibrio parahaemolyticus are absent in two consecutive samples of shellfish meats collected from the Vibrio parahaemolyticus sample stations in the closed area.

(g) The department shall open harvest areas designated as closed areas due to a confirmed Vibrio parahaemolyticus outbreak when the department determines that Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains of virulent serotypes are absent in those situations where 03:K6 or other tdh+ serotypes were confirmed as the cause of the outbreak. For purposes of this subsection, in Galveston Bay, Vibrio parahaemolyticus virulent strains shall be considered absent when 25 shellfish meat samples from any delineated harvest area that has been designated as a closed area do not result in reporting of the virulent strain that caused the outbreak.

(h) If a second confirmed outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus illness occurs in an area, the department shall open a harvest area designated as closed when 50 shellfish samples do not result in the reporting of the virulent strain that caused the outbreak.

(i) If harvest areas designated as closed areas as a result of Vibrio parahaemolyticus cannot be opened as a result of the sampling under Subsection (f) or (g), the areas may be opened when environmental conditions develop that are unfavorable for Vibrio parahaemolyticus growth or when environmental conditions shift to conditions that are historically unrelated to outbreaks of Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1298, Sec. 3, eff. June 18, 1999.