USDA Proposes Poultry Sampling Rule Change

The Veterinary Services Unit of USDA APHIS in Conyers, Ga., wants to amend the National Poultry Improvement Plan and its auxiliary provisions by providing new or modified sampling and testing procedures for plan participants and participating flocks.

The proposed changes were voted on and approved by the voting delegates at the plan's 2006 National Plan Conference. These changes would keep the provisions of the plan current with changes in the poultry industry and provide for the use of new sampling and testing procedures.

The National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP) is a cooperative federal-state-industry mechanism for controlling certain poultry diseases. The plan consists of a variety of programs intended to prevent and control poultry diseases. Participation in all plan programs is voluntary, but breeding flocks, hatcheries, and dealers must first qualify as “U.S. Pullorum-Typhoid Clean” as a condition for participating in the other plan programs.

The plan identifies states, flocks, hatcheries, dealers and slaughter plants that meet certain disease control standards specified in the plan's various programs. As a result, customers can buy poultry that has tested clean of certain diseases or that has been produced under disease-prevention conditions.

The proposed amendments discussed in this document are consistent with the recommendations approved by the voting delegates to the National Plan Conference that was held in 2006.

Comments are due by July 28. The proposed rule, with detailed changes, is posted here.